KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry (MOH) has spent RM248.97mil to outsource 93,495 heart patients to Institut Jantung Negara Sdn Bhd (IJNSB) from January to May 31 this year alone.
MOH, in a written answer to the Dewan Negara, which was uploaded on the Parliament’s website, said the treatment expenses covered heart patients from government employees, federal pensioners and poor patients.
“For 2023, the total number of heart patient visits at IJNSB stood at 233,885. The government’s expenditure on treatment costs is RM606.52mil,” MOH stated in its reply.
The ministry said this in response to Senator Datuk Mustafa Musa’s question about the number of heart patients in the country and the total cost of medicine, treatment and specialist services last year and this year.
MOH spent RM316mil last year to purchase medicines for the treatment of heart disease, compared to RM130mil from January to June this year.
Based on case mix data, MOH said the average cost of treatment for heart patients (inpatient) at MOH hospitals from 2017 to 2020 is as much as RM5,072.05 per patient, with a minimum cost of RM2,154.45, while the maximum cost is RM52,215.13, according to the Bernama report.
According to data from the Health Information Centre, MOH stated that in 2023, a total of 259,259 heart patients received inpatient treatment at government hospitals nationwide, while another 641,590 received outpatient treatment.
In addition, 450,960 patients received treatment at health clinics.
