KPJ Healthcare Berhad

Damai Wellness Centre to improve lives of longer living Sabahans

KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans have longer life expectancy today, with men reaching up to an average of 74 years of age and women, 77.6 based on the 2018 statistics, Health and People’s Wellbeing Minister Datuk Stephen Wong Tien Fatt pointed out.

The increasing age creates new challenges for the existing healthcare services as ageing is highly associated with diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, loss of vision, hearing and Alzheimer’s disease leading to disability and dependency, he said.

“As such, the government is supportive of Damai Wellness’s innovative and holistic approach to alleviate the difficulties of the public in accessing professional home care services for the elderly and welcomed this kind of complementary services to support the current healthcare system,” Wong said.

“This is a farsighted move by KPJ which understands the people’s needs and I encourage more of such centre can be set up in other places to provide the similar facilities for the people,” he said during the launch of the Damai Wellness Centre (formerly known as the KPJDamai Specialist Hospital) on Thursday.

The centre was set up to provide living care facilities for families who require professional support network for their elderly members to continue to live a fulfilling lives and enjoy good health.

Damai Wellness is the fourth one within KPJ group to offer assisted living care facility after Sibu Love Care Centre in Sarawak, Tawakkal Health Centre in Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan Wellness Centre in Pahang.

Damai Wellness Centre chairman Ahmad Nasirruddin Harun said the centre provides personal care with daily activities such as personal hygiene and medication management, while still ensuring the residents’ privacy.

The centre also provides a common living area for social activity, entertainments and wellness as well as physiotherapy services for group exercise to keep them physically active to delay the onset of disability, increase sociability and decrease loneliness, he said.

It offers a 24-hour support and access if needed as it will liaise with its nearby sister hospital KPJ Sabah Specialist Hospital to ensure that all residents and clients will be taken care of in case of emergencies, he said.

It also caters unique rehabilitation services for the younger patients by their qualified physiotherapists who offer a multi-disciplinary setting for both preventative and treatment purposes to maximize their physical potential and restoring their movements and functionality, Ahmad said.

KPJ Healthcare Berhad is committed to invest and adopt new technologies and Damai Wellness Centre is the first in Borneo that offers targeted tissue long wave radiotherapy (TECAR) which utilizes energy transfer to activate and accelerate the natural process of repair and recovery, he said.

In addition, Damai Wellness’ rehab services provide treatments which are integral to the recovery from surgery, stroke and physical injury. Since January this year, night services are offered from 6pm to 9pm on weekdays.

According to its general manager, Wendy Voo, the centre has been appointed as one of the panel centres in May 2018 by PERKESO under their Return to Work (RTW) programme for rehabilitation services which tries to eliminate as many negative consequences as possible such as loss of production for employees, personal disappointment and loss of self-esteem for employees and high compensation costs for SOCSO.

By assisting and encouraging injured or ill employees back to work, she said the system has benefitted employers, employees and SOCSOin Malaysia.

In Jan 2019, the centre was appointed as the only panel in Sabah to provide hostel facilities for outstation patients undergoing the RTWprogramme.

“By offering lodging facilities for Sabahans and those from northern region of Sarawak (Miri, Lawas and Limbang), it allows them to have access to rehabilitation services for a faster recovery nearer to home as previously they were referred to the main rehabilitation centre in Melaka,” Voo said.

Besides that, the centre also offers after-birth care services in a relaxing environment to support both mother and the newborn baby’s development.

Also present were KPJ Healthcare Berhad president and managing director Dato’ Amiruddin Abdul Satar and Damai Wellness Centre executive director Dr Munirah Khudri.- New Sabah Times