Reaching out
PROVIDING medical services to people living in remote areas is a noble thing to do. This is what an International Medical University ( IMU) medical alumnus Pamela Tan did after housemanship at Kuching General Hospital in Sarawak. She did this by joining the Flying Doctor Service ( FDS) in Sarawak.
“When I first joined the FDS family, there were mixed feelings of excitement of being able to serve the community in an unconventional manner as well as self- doubt of practising safe medicine in a limited setting.
“There was also language and dialect barrier, as the communities mainly comprised of the Ibans, Bidayuhs and other ethnic groups. Other than that, we had to deal with weather irregularities and occasional landscape issues for the helipad at each locality.
“Thankfully, our teams have been blessed again and again. I was very often guided by the sharing of amusing yet insightful experiences of my predecessors. My current team members often found it humorous to translate the locals’ communication to me. It was rather tricky for me initially but I am definitely getting there.
“For every place that we have visited, the villagers were always warm and friendly to us and willing to help carry our truckload of medical supplies and allowed us to use their common area for our clinic session. They were constantly making sure we were well fed and well hydrated, too. I was also lucky enough to partner with a jolly and experienced pilot who prioritised our team’s safety,” she shared.
In 1973, the FDS was brought into Sarawak to provide basic health services to people living in remote areas that were inaccessible by roads. At the moment, the services are based in Kuching, Sibu and Miri, which concurrently cover 120 locations with the average attendance of around 50,000 outpatients, children and antenatal mother yearly. Each team consists of a medical officer, an assistant medical officer and two community nurses who visit the locations on a monthly basis.
At IMU, students studying medicine have the option to study the first two and a half years of the degree in IMU and transfer to one of its 25 partner universities in Australia, the UK, Ireland, Canada or the US for completion of the medical programme. These international partnerships mean that the IMU curriculum has been developed to meet these universities’ high international standards. Students studying medicine in IMU also have the option to complete the entire degree in IMU. They also get clinical exposure as early as Semester 1. The aim of the clinical exposure is to ensure students gain sufficient skills before transferring to the clinical years. Students who complete the entire degree locally in IMU will undergo an intensive six- month Senior Clerkship at Hospital Batu Pahat or Hospital Kluang in Semester 10, working in wards under the supervision of senior clinicians.
This early clinical exposure and intensive Senior Clerkship will better prepare graduates for patient care and housemanship training. This will then enable you to become better doctors.
Intakes for this programme are in February and August each year. If you are interested, make an online application today.
For details, log on to www. imu. edu. my or e- mail start@ imu. edu. my or call IMU at 03- 2731 7272.