KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) today inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to catalyse efforts to improve delivery services in its respective fields.
This inaugural memorandum encompasses collaborations in medicine, rehabilitation treatment, neurological interventions as well as mental health.
UPM vice-chancellor Professor Dr Mohd Roslan Sulaiman said the MoU also enables Socso to ensure its contributors will be able to get rehabilitation treatments at the UPM hospital.
"Rehabilitation is a branch of medicine that emphasises on client-centred services, which provides holistic services from assessments to treatments, in which we have clinical rehabilitation, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy units at our hospital.
"This MoU will enable us to cooperate directly with Socso's Tun Abdul Razak Rehabilitation Centre (PRPTAR) in providing rehabilitation to injured Socso contributors until they are fit to get back to work.
"Apart from that, we will also be cooperating on future research to enhance employees' skills and knowledge in various fields including rehabilitation services, neurological interventions, allied health skills as well as robotics," he said at the MoU signing ceremony at the UPM teaching hospital in Serdang here today.
The MoU was inked by Professor Dr Mohd Roslan and Socso chief executive officer Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohamad, and witnessed by PRPTAR executive director Datuk Dr Hafez Hussain and UPM teaching hospital director Associate Professor Dr Muhammad Mohd Isa.
Through the MoU, which focuses on individuals' rehabilitation, Azman believes that the cooperation will speed up the patients' recovery process.
"It will also allow them to return to work and support their families in a timely manner.
"The strategies adopted under this collaboration are in line with our Return-To-Work programme which emphasises the concept of early intervention and intensive rehabilitation," he said.
Previously, UPM and Socso kicked off their first collaboration through a pilot project on the Early Stroke Disability Prevention programme last year.
Azman said it was tripartite cooperation between the university, Socso and the Health Ministry, adopting early stroke detection and treatment approach for the employees.
"Fifty eligible Socso contributors were selected for this pilot project, with the help of Socso, the UPM teaching hospital and several other government hospitals including Kajang Hospital and Putrajaya Hospital.
"The collaboration intends to provide treatments to employees who have had strokes before, or within 24 hours after the initial attacks.
"We used the Thrombolysis and Thrombectomy procedures to remove blood clots in the patient's blood vessels, followed by intensive rehabilitation treatment," he said.
