MARA Hospital for all, complements the ecosystem – Asyraf Wajdi

KUALA LUMPUR: The proposal to establish the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) Hospital should not be associated with racial sentiments; instead, it complements the agency’s education, entrepreneurship, and health ecosystem.

MARA Chairman, Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, stressed that MARA produces tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, and specialists in various fields, besides having a complete education ecosystem offering medical, nursing, biomedical, and health technology programmes.

“MARA currently has Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) Royal College of Medicine Perak (RCMP) in Ipoh which offers doctoral programmes, but does not yet have its own hospital as a student training centre.

“It is common for any university offering doctoral programmes to have a hospital as a training ground for doctors. So, it is not unusual.

“This hospital is for all. We will not choose patients and from the perspective of medical professional ethics, one cannot choose patients based on race,” he said.

He was commenting on the proposal to establish the MARA Hospital after some parties linked it to racial sentiments and questioned the extent to which the facility would benefit everyone inclusively.

This follows the actions of certain parties who linked the proposed construction of the MARA Hospital to issues of racial sentiment, which was described as a narrow-minded way of thinking.

MARA Director-General, Datuk Seri Zulfikri Osman, was quoted as saying that the idea of establishing the hospital should not be disputed because currently, many non-Bumiputera-owned private hospitals are also frequented by various races, including Bumiputera patients, for treatment.

He said the proposed construction of the hospital is a strategic necessity to complete the medical and education ecosystem, particularly serving as a teaching hospital.

Elaborating further, Asyraf Wajdi said the proposal is still at the evaluation and study stage, with MARA having established a special team led by the MARA Deputy Director-General to examine all related aspects.

He said MARA’s health ecosystem also includes the UNI Klinik, UNI Farmasi, and UNI Dental network, which currently has about 160 branches and is expected to increase to 200 by the end of this year.

“All of this is new to evaluate and study. We haven’t even talked about implementation yet, but people have already raised various perceptions.

“I hope this explanation can enlighten everyone that this proposal has nothing to do with racism,” he said.

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