Committed to serving people

Aid from the committee: Datin Sunita Jeyaindran (second from right), the wife of Dr Jeyaindran, handing over the Focus AE-Learning portals to Rumah Kebajikan Kanak kanak Seremban representative P. Kumaran.

THE Negri Sembilan chapter of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) annual dinner was a chance to celebrate another year of achievements and strengthen camaraderie.

State MMA chief Dr Andrew Solamadan said the chapter had organised several health camps, meetings on scientific matters, community projects, sports and recreational activities, blood donation campaigns as well as helped out in relief work during the floods in the east coast.

“We rose to the occasion when it mattered most and in most instances, without much publicity or fanfare,” he said to loud applause.

Present were Health Ministry deputy director-general Datuk Dr S. Jeyaindran, state Health director Dr Abdul Rahim Abdullah, MMA president Dr Krishna Kumar and members of the body’s executive council.

They were joined by Miss Malaysia Universe Vanessa Tevi Kumares, who was appointed the state MMA’s “Thalassaemia Ambassador” 2015.

Dr Solamadan said the state MMA worked closely with the Section Concerning House Officers, Medical Officers and Specialists (Schomos) and private practitioners to organise activities for members.

“The passion and zeal to serve is still seen in many of us and is best reflected in the composition of my state committee, which has a houseman in it right up to very senior members of the fraternity,” he said.

A camp was organised in collaboration with the Paediatrics Department of Hospital Tuanku Ja’afar to educate 34 children with thalassaemia as well as their caregivers.

He said the state MMA also responded to appeals from the authorities to replenish the blood supply at the Tuanku Ja’afar blood bank.

“We held a blood donation campaign in the aftermath of the massive floods in the east coast,” he said.

Dr Solamadan added his committee had also donated computers and Focus AE-Learning portals to Rumah Kebajikan Kanak-Kanak Seremban.

He said the state MMA also participated in the International Medical University’s White Coat Ceremony held twice a year.

“This has been a tradition where we assist students who have completed their pre-clinical phase in Bukit Jalil to enter the clinical phase here in Seremban,” he said.

He said 10 continuing medical education (CME) and continuing professional development (CPD) talks were held in the past year.

“Our team also held a medical camp for the orang asli in Mantin,” he said, adding that the state MMA had also raised RM5,000 for the Pusat Jagaan Baitul Mahabbah orphanage last Ramadan.

On a separate matter, Dr Solamadan said the first phase of refurbishment of the MMA House at the Oakland Commercial Centre had been completed and the next phase would start soon.