KUALA LUMPUR, Mon - Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital (HUKM), which has only 819 beds, is struggling to cope with 20,000 outpatients and 3,000 in-patients monthly.

Royal Visitor : The Sultan of Pahang speaking with Chan Chee Chong, 14, at the hospital yesterday. Chan is suffering from bone cancer and has had his left leg amputated.

For this reason, the hospital welcomes any form of support from the private sector and non-governmental organizations, UKM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Anuar Ali said.

In 1999, a cancer institute called Institut Kanser MAKNA-HUKM was set up with the co-operation of the National Cancer Council (MAKNA), he said at the opening of the Tengku Ampuan Afzan oncology ward today.

The ward, named after the late Tengku Ampuan of Pahang, was opened by the sultan of Pahang Sultan Ahmad Shah who is also the patron of MAKNA. It has 16 beds for men and 18 for women.

MAKNA president Dato' Mohd Farid Ariffin said the cancer institute also has wards for radiotherapy and bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplant.

"The bone marrow transplant ward has 12 rooms," he said, adding that MAKNA-HUKM is the third cancer institute in the country after Hospital Kuala Lumpur and the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre.

He also said cancer could become the number one killer in Malaysia if patients were not treated early.

Last year, the number of cases was about 900, compared with about 300 in 1999.

"In most cases, the patients come to us at the critical stage and there is nothing much we can do," he said, adding that MAKNA was now holding an awareness campaign on early detection of cancer.

He said MAKNA had spent RM9.3 million since 1999 on medicine and equipment at the cancer institute, but only received about RM140,000 in payment.

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