Subra: Cluster hospital concept is cost-effective

Dr Subramaniam (second from left) with Dr Noor Hisham (left) during a working visit to the Alor Gajah Hospital. Looking on is Dr Ghazali (behind Dr Subramaniam).

ALOR GAJAH: A new hospital might not be built in Melaka following the introduction of the cluster hospital concept in 2014.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the Government’s intention to deliver high quality health services to the people could be achieved through a more cost-effective approach such as the cluster hospital.

“We don’t need to build new hospitals to ensure quality health services for everyone,” he said after a working visit to Alor Gajah Hospital here.

Also present were state health, sports development and anti-drugs committee chairman Datuk Ab Rahaman Ab Karim, Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and state health director Datuk Dr Ghazali Othman.

Dr Subramaniam said the cluster concept was introduced by the Health Ministry to address hospital congestion which has been a continuous challenge in hospitals across the country.

Cluster hospitals complement each other in terms of medical facilities, technology and specialists, and involve the sharing of medical specialists.

He said by clustering, congestion in specialist hospitals such as the Melaka Hospital and under utilised non-specialist hospitals like Alor Gajah Hospital could be addressed.

“At the same time, access to specialised care and patients’ needs are met by redistribution of workload and sharing of resources such as manpower, hospital beds, operating theatres and clinics,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam added that currently, 13 cluster hospitals have been set up in Malaysia, comprising 18 specialist hospitals and 28 district hospitals in Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Sabah, Negri Sembilan, Perak, Penang, Kedah and Selangor.

He said the cluster hospital concept showed encouraging results since it was first introduced four years ago.

“The Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) for Alor Gajah Hospital has increased from 45% in 2013 to 74% in 2017.

“Total patients receiving treatment at specialist clinics in Alor Gajah Hospital has nearly tripled from an average of 316 patients a month in 2013 to 956 patients per month in 2017,” he said.

Other clusters, Dr Subramaniam said, also showed improvement with the average BOR at non-specialist hospitals increasing from 54.6% to 61.7% while the average number of patients receiving treatment at the non-specialist hospitals in the clusters increased by 20.5% from 258 patients to 311 patients a month.

He said a cost-effectiveness analysis study conducted by the Health Ministry with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia showed that specialised care at non-specialist hospitals could be provided in a more cost-effective manner through the cluster concept.