Prof Nazirah: 'Being a woman is not a critical factor and people don’t treat me differently. I’ve been in a leading position for quite some time that I do not feel a female director is a novelty.'As the first woman to helm the top post at Universiti Malaya Medical Centre , the new director was literally thrown into the job at the height of the pandemic last year, with daggers flying from every corner.
She points out: “Being a woman is not a critical factor and people don’t treat me differently. I’ve been in a leading position for quite some time that I do not feel a female director is a novelty. We’ve had Prof Adeeba as the first female dean of Universiti Malaya ’s medical faculty and quite a number of female heads of department in UM and UMMC.
Now, as the number one, she’s out to make some changes, and that includes harmonising relationships between certain groups, and breaking down “invisible barriers” between the academics and non-academics. There are 5,891 staff employed by UMMC but there is also a big group of lecturers employed by UM who do their clinical work at UMMC but are not counted as part of UMMC staff
“For example, the bariatric programme – the surgeons want to do this, the sports physicians want to do that, the dietitians want it this way, the nurses another way but they don’t seem to be able to say ‘let’s do this together’. When you cannot do things together, outcomes are not as good,” explains Prof Nazirah.As a teaching hospital, its role is in teaching and clinical service support.
National responsiblity: University Malaya Medical Centre set up a special screening counter for patient returning from China in February 2020. “But, I also requested funds from the Higher Education Ministry because I didn’t want non-Covid-19 patients to be affected. “We don’t open extra beds when we don’t have to, unlike the Health Ministry hospitals. So we call the central emergency services and tell them we are full.
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