MANAGEMENT PROGRAM The Management Program provides the administrative support for Sarawak Health Department. It is responsible for personnel and financial management, training and monitoring of development. projects. Personnel and Financial Management Training Monitoring of Development Projects Personnel and Financial Management As of 31 December 2001, 10,062 (82.2%) out of 12,236 posts in the Sarawak Health Department were filled. Of these, only about 9.4% are in the professional group, while the rest are allied health professionals and other support staff. The Sarawak Health Department's operating expenditure for health care was RM472 million in 2001. Almost 65% of the allocation was utilised by the Medical Care Program and about 25%, by the Public Health Program. About half of the total allocation was for emoluments. back to top Training   The general objective of the training program is to train sufficient numbers of qualified personnel in order to provide efficient curative and preventive health services to the public. There are six training institutions in Sarawak. Four are in Kuching, while Sibu and Serian have one each. These institutions provide basic training for medical assistants, staff nurses, community health nurses, health inspectors, public health assistants and medical laboratory technicians. Post-basic courses are also conducted by two of the schools. Other paramedical staff such as dental nurses, dental technicians, dental surgery assistants, pharmacy assistants, radiographers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists are trained in Peninsular Malaysia. back to top Project Development Eighty-seven development projects were approved under the 7th Malaysia Plan. Among the major projects completed under the 7th Malaysia Plan were Bintulu Hospital and Sibu Nursing School. The upgrading and refurbishment of Sarawak General Hospital is still in progress. The College of Allied Health Science, Kuching which will cater for 3 training programs i.e. Nurse, Medical Assistant and Medical Laboratory Technologist is scheduled for completion in December 2003 while Dalat Hospital(Phase 1) will be completed in February 2003. A total of 115 projects have been proposed for implementation under the 8th Malaysia Plan at a cost of RM391 million. Among the projects proposed are new hospitals for Sri Aman, Lawas, Belaga & Sarikei; polyclinics for Petra Jaya (Kuching) and Tudan (Miri), Lanang (Sibu), Song and Selangau; 12 clinics in rural areas and two dental clinics. back to top e-mail us at shd@sarawak.health.gov.my