KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Former Health Director-General (DG) Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman has been appointed as the clinical advisor to Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad and the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The appointment is seen as a strategic move to strengthen clinical governance and reform initiatives at MOH.
“Coincidentally, I have just appointed former DG Abu Bakar Suleiman as my personal clinical advisor as the minister and also to the ministry. He has a stature that everyone accepts, as a notable figure, a clinician, and a former DG with high prestige,” Dzulkefly told the Dewan Rakyat special chambers on June 26.
Dzulkefly elaborated on the broader context of Dr Abu Bakar’s appointment, linking it to the ministry’s ongoing reforms.
“Not only to look at my reform. My health transformation reform for my health financing reform and also digital health reform but ultimately all of this will result in what is called improvement or precision care, precision medicine, and also precision population care or precision public care. Sorry, public health. So, you have precision medicine, precision public health,” Dzulkefly said.
Dzulkefly reaffirmed his dedication to improving health outcomes and care delivery in his second term as health minister.
“This is my commitment upon returning for a second term. My primary goal is to enhance health outcomes and care delivery. This has been my commitment from the beginning of my second term as Minister. In short, I have prioritised clinical governance and appointed one of the top clinicians in the country, who is actually world-renowned and highly respected.”
Dr Abu Bakar served as Health DG from 1991 to 1999, under the leadership of then health ministers Lee Kim Sai and Chua Jui Meng during Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era.
Currently, he is the Chancellor of the International Medical University. Dr Abu Bakar also served as the president of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) from 1986 to 1988.
Dr Abu Bakar obtained his MBBS from Monash University, Australia, in 1968, and his Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine from the University of Singapore in 1974. He became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and received postgraduate training in Nephrology in the United States and Australia from 1975 to 1976.
As a pioneer in Malaysian nephrology, Dr Abu Bakar is credited with establishing the Department of Nephrology at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL), as well as expanding dialysis and transplant services at HKL and extending them to other hospitals nationwide.
