UMS to have country’s first fully smart hospital
KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah Hospital (HUMS) will be the first fully smart hospital in the country.
To be fully smart means that the hospital will be using technology to run its operations.
Health and People’s Wellbeing Minister Datuk Stephen Wong said the use of technology will cut down the waiting time for patients seeking treatment and raise the efficiency of the hospital.
“I am proud to have such a hospital in Sabah,” he said at the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between UMS and Sabah Health Department and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UMS and Health4U Solution Sdn Bhd at the Magellan Sutera Harbour near here yesterday.
“It will be a hi-tech hospital and this will surely attract more people from abroad to come and seek medical treatment,” he said.
He said smart technology systems including state-ofthe-art medical equipments at HUMS would be expanded to government hospitals in Sabah to improve existing services to improve the health status of the population.
HUMS is also seen to potentially develop the medical tourism sector in Sabah through the provision of the best infrastructure and healthcare services, he said.
Wong said the construction of the smart hospital was also expected to be a platform for more medical experts in Sabah as specialist doctors are still lacking in the state.
In his speech, Stephen also explained that the MoA between UMS and the Health Department was a win-win collaboration and encouraged by the government to help the public sector generate more manpower and raise the health standard of the people in Sabah.
The collaboration which has been going on for the last 15 years will also assist in educating students from the Medical and Health Science Faculty in UMS by providing them with hands-on training area.
Meanwhile, UMS vice chancellor Professor Datuk Dr D. Kamarudin D. Mudin said that the university’s hospital is expected to be completed in 2021.
He said that the hospital is built on 60 acres of land and will be able to accommodate 400 beds, 25 operating theatres, 12 units of delivery and various other current infrastructure.
Earlier, Kamarudin and Wong attended the signing of MoA. Kamarudin represented UMS and the State Health Department was represented by Health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi, while Health4U Solution Sdn Bhd was represented by its chief executive officer Datuk Chevy Beh and the event was witnessed by Wong.
The MoA is a seven-year extension of the medical and postgraduate medical programmes, while five years for nursing diploma to undergo clinical training, and conduct research activities for post-graduate students for public health degree programmes and public health doctorate programmes.
As for the MoU, Health4U Solutions Sdn Bhd designs and develops BookDoc, a mobile based platform that connects patients and healthcare providers, allowing patients to find nearest doctors and make appointments.