Budget 2023: Health Ministry gets RM3.7bil more than in 2022

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry will be given RM36.1bil under Budget 2023, an increase of RM3.7bil from the RM32.4bil allocated under Budget 2022.

This is one of the biggest increases in allocations for ministries, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said when tabling Budget 2023 in Parliament on Friday (Oct 7).

The Finance Minister said RM4.9bil had been allocated to ramp up healthcare capacity including through the procurement of medicines, reagents and vaccines, among others. This is a 12% increase from the 2022 allocation.

He added that RM1.8bil has been allocated for the construction of new health clinics, hospitals and healthcare facilities.

This includes Hospital Maran in Pahang, five new health clinics and a women and children’s wing for Hospital Melaka.

CT scan services will also be expanded and this will specifically benefit those in the interior of Sabah and Sarawak.

He also said RM240mil has also been set aside for the repair of dilapidated hospitals and public health clinics as well as to replace old equipment.

The government is also planning to set up a centre of excellence for mental health and some RM34mil has been allocated for this purpose.

Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Hospital Tunku Azizah in Kuala Lumpur will become reference centres for rare diseases with an allocation of RM25mil.

Tengku Zafrul also said that a trust account would be set up for rare diseases and contributions will get a 10% tax exemption.

He added that RM80mil was allocated for the PekaB40 health scheme, including for diabetes screening.

The MySalaam programme will see an allocation of RM734mil and is estimated to benefit 1.5 million individuals from the B40 group, inlcuding 500,000 who were beneficiaries of compensation due to Covid-19.