Room for improvement: Stakeholders feel that the RM45.3bil allocation for health is still inadequate.
HAVING received the second highest allocation in Budget 2025, stakeholders want the Health Ministry to heed the Prime Minister’s reminder to upgrade rundown facilities and provide better services to the people, including reducing waiting time.
However, they conceded the allocation at RM45.3bil (a RM4bil increase from the previous budget) is still inadequate given the complexity and size of the service rendered by the ministry.
Prof Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh, a health economics and public health specialist with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty of Medicine, said while some healthcare facilities are very rundown, funds should also be allocated for manpower as doctors and specialists are needed to run these facilities and attend to patients.
She said the RM1.35bil to upgrade dilapidated healthcare facilities and RM300mil for upgrade and repairs of dilapidated clinics may not be enough as most of these facilities are already bursting at the seams with patient load.
She added that waiting time at healthcare facilities continues to be an issue.
On top of that, doctors are leaving the public service and sometimes there are shortages of treatment drugs and centres.
Hartal Doktor Kontrak spokesperson Dr Muhammad Yassin said while he agrees with the Prime Minister’s call, it is more pressing to address the manpower shortage in hospitals.
“To tackle this issue as what Hartal had mentioned many times before, we need a Health Services Commission which has the autonomy to hire its own staff based on the needs of the healthcare sector,” he added.
Meanwhile, Senator Dr RA Lingeshwaran said the RM1.35bil allocation to upgrade dilapidated healthcare facilities, including wards, is a great move as many public hospitals are more than 100 years old.
“In my home state of Penang alone, four out of six public hospitals namely Hospital Penang, Hospital Balik Pulau, Hospital Bukit Mertajam and Hospital Sungai Bakap are all over a century old,” he said.
“Some of the facilities can be considered museum-grade hospitals and need to be urgently upgraded to render proper health services.”
Former deputy health minister Datuk Dr Lee Boon Chye said to tackle the long waiting time at healthcare facilities, funds should be spent on digital technology, such as queue system and virtual consultation.
“There was no special mention of electronic medical records (EMR) which will centralise patient records. Hopefully, it will be in the next Malaysia plan,” he said.
EMR refers to a digital database system that enables healthcare facilities to keep track of relevant medical information such as registration, clinical laboratory results, pharmacy, nursing and kitchen information.
