Health Service

The Government has played an important role as the main provider of public health services through a national network of hospitals, clinics and other services. Universities and nongovernmental organizations are also among the main players in the health system pyramid. This is to ensure that the objective of universal access to essential health services is attained. The efficient use of limited resources has been achieved through an integrated national health care system that encompasses both preventive and curative services. This is a major reason why Malaysia has managed to keep health care costs down, while achieving satisfactory health outcomes.

I would like to share a sweet experience I underwent quite recently.

During the last mid semester, I noticed that my neck is swollen. The swollen did not hurt but the size of it becoming larger by day. Being worried and all, I decided to pay a visit to the clinic. But to my frustration, the clinic in USM was crowded and my swollen neck could not tolerate that long queue.

I used to be so ignorant, and could not care less about the whereabouts of other panel clinic before since I am not prone to being sick for quite some time. Searching through the internet, I was surprised to find that there are a lot of panel clinics around made especially for the convenience of USM students. Off to Gelugor I went heading to Klinik Aman. But the doctor there advised me that goiter test was only to be done in the USM Clinic in-campus itself. Hence I have no other choice.

I used to be so cynical about government clinics. But my poor expectations were smashed by the surprisingly friendly atmosphere inside the clinic. The nurses were very friendly that I don’t mind the long queue. They seemed concern and ask several times if the waiting is bothering me. In whole, the service was very good, and I’m heading back home feeling very happy.

Here I would love to share some information of the services available in USM Clinic in campus that I read from the website:
-Clinical treatment
-Emergency
-Refer cases to Ganeral Hospital
-Lab Test
-Ultrasound
-X-Ray
-Pharmacy service
-Haemodialisis service
-Dental service

To conclude things, I noticed that the health service planning has been based on needs assessment and allocation efficiency in order to attain the appropriate level of access and an equitable distribution of the scarce resources. Planning has also been aimed to improve the mix and quality of services, and to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Besides, there are many government clinics around that are in fact, way better than the private ones. The nurses were friendly, doctors were great and overall I am very happy with my visit.

Surely, that won’t be my last visit to government clinic!

Smoking

Imagine this. You lead a very healthy life. You don’t drink, smoke, regular sleeping pattern, take your vegetables, drink plenty of water, and don’t smoke.

Except that you are living with a roommate that does. Who constantly lit his cigarettes as often as they can as their life depending on it. How would you feel? Like all your effort and conceptual healthy living is going into the drain.

Being a secondhand smoker is found to be more dangerous than the smoker himself. Just to share a personal experience, I have 2 schoolmates who lost their mothers due to cancer suspected by doctors suffering from secondhand smoker.

In our noble effort to breath fresh air (well some of use spend good money just to spend the weekend far from the city for ‘fresh air’), we try to ignore how this smokers are also polluting our air to breath. We fork out a bomb for good air filter yet sadly we still have to bear with the annoying smoke we inhale, reluctantly.

Picture above:I will let the picture do the talking

When the government are banning some public places from smoking, people like us may say ‘Hurray’. Then it continued by recent development with the banning from smoking at the pedestrian pavement.

I hope these are not the end. Aggressive ways need to be enforce to tackle these problems. My opinion is that school children who are found smoking will be canned and punished as this is not a matter to be taken lightly. More secluded area could be made for the smokers, so they won’t interfere with the serenity left in our fresh air.

We need fresh air. We have the right to that.

MENTAL ILLNESS

One of many aspects that I believe will help to improve the quality of live is the health and stability of one’s mental state. That is why I strongly suggested that to aim for high living quality, we must have strong mental stability to overcome the hardship in this cunning world.

Mental instability, other than being influenced genetically, is also caused by the way of living. To identify someone who is at risk at mental illness is to look for people who fail to deal with stress positively.

Picture above:Is this the best way to deal with stress?

Stress is inevitable, yet essentials to keep us going. It is desired as a ‘push factor’ to make us go to work, study, and do things we may not like to do, but we just have to. However different people coop wit stress differently. This is where the mental illness will start to root on and grow, if one failed to deal with stress and drowned himself in.

In this cunning world like I said, stress is becoming more and more challenging to face alone. 30 years ago, the study about stress may sounds odd and unfamiliar. But nowadays, there are a lot of solutions for us to deal with stress effectively. Like communication for example, that is becoming convenient, hence may help us when we need to talk to someone. We have specialist, physiatrist, studies and techniques to deal with stress that are being discuss openly.

Now we have channels to seek for any information, solutions, and ways to deal with stress. Maybe going to a physiatrist because you were mad at someone would be too dramatic, you can shout your lungs out in nearby karaoke box to release all the build up tension. Or maybe a stroll in the park, or a movie day out.

What I’m trying to say is that, we have all the facilities, the places, namely entertainment that we can actually use them to deal with stress. Don’t let the stress eat you up and later turn you into a monster. Remember, health mind leads happy life.

SPORT FACILITIES

We have been told that regular exercise (namely 3 times per week, 20 minutes per session at least) is the most famous ingredients towards betterment of health. In the town I live, Seremban that is, the most common exercise by the people based on my general observation would be jogging, football, badminton, tennis, swimming and many more.

Of course, this pattern is influenced by the facilities available around. My town is lucky to have quite a few places to do exercise. We have the Lake Garden that is situated at the center of the town where during mornings and afternoons, people crowd the area for some jogging, tai-chi exercise or just having good time with families. There is also the Sports Complex facilitated by the Ministry of Health. In the complex, there are futsal area, tennis courts, squash courts, rock climbing, jogging track and gymnasium. The facilities are improving through time because it used to be just tennis court and football field available. In the afternoons there are also classes of aerobics for the ladies with minimum charge. Located nearby is the Aquatic Center where the previous SUKMA tournament was held. The facilities in the Aquatic Center is fit enough to host international aquatic meets.


Gymnasium and health club are also rising in number. Adopting the modern lifestyle from one-hour-drive from Kuala Lumpur, there are increasing number of health clubs, private gymnasium, and private facilities such as futsal court, bowling alleys and yoga centers (just to name a few). So now the people in Seremban are given almost equal opportunities of modern and various sports facilities.

In comparison by 10 years ago, the upgrading of sports facilities in Seremban had been tremendous. From only a few jogging tracks now there are quite a few around town and also, nearby developing neighbourhood. With increasing number of people from Kuala Lumpur opt to build living in Seremban to avoid the hustle and bustle, the development of sports facilities are essential to allow people to have more options (and chances) to exercise regularly.

These are my observation that I find, is giving the definition to betterment of quality in lifestyle in my town. Even though the root of this matter is that, even we have thousands of facilities right in front of our eyes but we failed to use them, all these are nonetheless, means nothing.

Welcome note from the author

When being told by my lecturers to open up a blog under the scope of ‘Quality of Life’ I find it hard to narrow down the scope and find a focus of the topic. But after awhile I decided to focus on the aspects of ‘Health’ because it is relatable and I find it interesting.

I believe we human are born with a nature or desire to always strive for better. Of course, the point of difference would be how much effort that particular person put to in order to achieve that. Let us put that all behind, and at this point assume that everyone is given equal opportunities to reach the desirable quality of life.

I know that definition of ‘quality’ may differ greatly of each person. That is why this space will allow me to talk about the matter that is relatable to my every, day life. Little things such as picking up a habit on going to jog everyday in the morning in the nearby park is in fact, if consistently practice will help us to strengthen the lungs, getting rid of half of the many reasons to catch respiratory disease. What we do in everyday lives that indeed will help us to step one stair higher towards the betterment of life.

I hope this space will help you to understand my humble definition of ‘Quality of Life’ in term of health.