At your service

EVERY doctor knows and has sworn by the Hippocratic Oath of doing no harm and performing their best to help their patients.
Aside from assessing a patient’s condition, and prescribing medicine and treatments, Dr Mohd Lutfi Fadil Lokman thinks creating and implementing proper policies in the health care system is important, as well as finding ways to sustain them. The 30-year-old, who is a medical officer in Institute for Health System Research (IHSR) under the Ministry of Health, believes that Malaysia has one of the best health care policies in the region, citing its accessibility with only RM1.
With this in mind, he co-founded Hospital Beyond Boundaries (HBB) in 2012, an NGO that sets up hospitals and clinics in rural areas.
“Rather than prescribing medicine to an individual, I want to see how we can prescribe working systems to the community, as we can save millions of lives at one time with good policies,” said the Gombak native.
Having studied in Indonesia, Mohd Lutfi was inspired to find ways to help the poor community in Bandung get proper treatment.
“The reason why some of them get sick is due to poverty. Even if they get treatment, they will get sick again, living in an environment that lacks sanitation,” he noted.
He also highlighted that while many organisations offer assistance to communities when disasters strike, such as floods and earthquakes, they rarely stay with the communities for long. Therefore, he said it is important to teach these communities to live sustainably and not merely depend on charity.
In recognition of HBB’s efforts, last year the United Nations selected Mohd Lutfi as one of 17 UN Young Leaders from a list of 18,000 nominations from 186 countries.
Tell us a bit more about HBB’s work in Cambodia.
HBB has set up a clinic in Phnom Penh to help the Cham minority who are badly affected by the Khmer Rouge regime in the past. The Chams are intimidated by hospitals built by foreigners after the war, that they would rather go to witch doctors and put off seeing a medical doctor until their conditions become chronic.
The HBB clinic is run by Cambodians themselves, so these people are more trusting towards them and open to take modern medicine. I would travel to Cambodia to treat patients as well as train the staff once a month.
What were the challenges that you had to face in setting up HBB?
When HBB started in 2012, it raised a lot of eyebrows – many were sceptical about it. Between 2012 and 2015, most of the work under HBB focused on raising funds and bringing awareness via our Facebook page.
With whatever money we had, we did things such as health screenings for the needy. And when we managed to gather enough money, we built the clinic in Cambodia. Once people knew what we were trying to achieve, it was easier to gain their trust and support.
How did it feel like to be named a UN Youth Leader?
Being one of the 17 chosen among some 18,000 applicants from around the world, I feel happy. At the same time, it is a big responsibility to inspire others to come up with sustainable goals in various sectors.
Through HBB, I am advocating good health and well-being as my interest is achieving universal health coverage – where everyone, be it citizens, migrants, or refugees, should have access to health care without jeopardising their finances.
What’s next for HBB?
We have constructed an obstetrics and gynaecology hospital to service childbirth and women’s health. It is adjacent to the clinic in Cambodia, and we are waiting for the local health ministry to approve it.
We are helping to provide medical services to the homeless, alongside soup kitchen Need to Feed the Need (NFN) around Medan Tuanku once a month.
We are targeting to help the orang asli community – in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports – where we have a five-year plan to engage and educate the indigenous population on health care and medication.
TRIVIA
Food he misses most when away from home: Nasi lemak.
Hobbies: Playing guitar, Photoshop, and coding.
Inspiration: The resilience of people living in poor areas.
Advice: “Life can be really short – when you are young and have the vigour, follow your dreams and take risks.”