KUALA LUMPUR: Ineffective usage of funds and government resources have left the B40 vulnerable to health issues as healthcare programmes fumble, says the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Health.
Its chairman Suhaizan Kaiat (PH-Pulai) said this was caused by a variety of long-standing issues that have continued to plague the Health Ministry and its rollout of programmes.
Speaking on the ongoing Madani Medical Scheme (MMS) and Skim Peduli Kesihatan (Peka B40), he said both were suffering from a lack of funding as well as poor management of allocated resources.
He said MMS in particular has seen frequent breaches of ethics which include inappropriate promotion, drugs sold illegally or without a prescription, and false claims.
“The government gave an allocation (of drugs) but a portion of it is misappropriated.
“Whenever we reach near the end of the year, there is a sudden exponential rise in claims. How can this be?
“This is because they hand out the drugs quickly to finish the stock,” he said during the briefing by his committee in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (Dec 12).
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He also said the B40 response to both MMS and Peka B40 had been underwhelming due to societal apprehension about undergoing health screenings.
“Many of those in the B40 are still scared of needles, how much more would they be when asked to do a full-body medical checkup?” he asked.
He also said the programmes have also been ineffective at targeting the hardcore poor, who need the assistance the most.
He advised the Health Ministry to utilise the government's Central Database Hub (Padu) to effectively identify and target the hardcore poor.
Suhaizan also said having the ministry juggle the role of both procurer and supplier of medical juggling between performing both roles of procurer and supplier of medical stocks hampered its ability to implement programmes.
“The overlap of roles as buyer and service provider still occurs and disrupts the smoothness of procurement.
“This can be seen in the sudden policy switch from passive to strategic procurement despite not having met the necessary criteria.
“The ministry’s roles must be separated so it can better focus on one aspect,” he said.
He said these issues together had resulted in uneven access to MMS for the B40, high costs, and overreliance on government budgets.
To remedy this, he called for the Peka B40 and MMS health checkups to be combined under a single programme.
Suhaizan added that the current approved budget was not enough to cover the operational costs of MMS, which he found too high.
He also urged the government to review the current salary of public sector medical staff who work outside office hours, as they suffered from low-priced consultation fees.
“They deserve to be given adequate compensation according to their work burden, especially for any after-hours services, to ensure access to treatment for underprivileged individuals,” he said.
