PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has received one of its highest allocations to date under Budget 2023, but health experts say more focus should have been given to areas such as manpower and facilities.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia health economy and public health specialist Prof Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh said there should be further spending on human resources due to a need for trained staff.
“We not only need people to man the facilities but we also need enough trained staff to do groundwork, which includes research.
“Apart from lab technologists, virologists and doctors trained in infectious diseases are also needed.”
“We lack enough research and capacity building in these areas, hence we are at the mercy of new outbreaks.
“We are dependent on work and vaccines that are done outside Malaysia when we can produce our own,” she said citing countries such as India and Indonesia which have done so.
She said the public healthcare department must be better equipped too as they would have to provide primary care for the rural population.
She added that this is important as it would ensure hospitals are not overburdened.
Dr Sharifa said the prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as heart diseases could not be reduced as some healthcare facilities are rundown and in need of trained manpower.
“And children with cancer have to travel far for treatment because there are no dedicated oncologists for paediatrics or children’s healthcare centres available to provide services in certain states,” she added.
Galen Centre chief executive officer Azrul Mohd Khalib said the allocation for the ministry gave a mixed impression of being part of a responsive budget and being business as usual.
“It focuses on investing in modernising Malaysia’s healthcare infrastructure and increasing its capacity, especially in east Malaysia, and resiliency to respond to issues such as mental health,” he said.
“It wants to address the contract doctor issue by increasing the allocation, which allows for more to be hired by contract, but despite large increases in emoluments across the board, there are no increases in permanent positions,” he added.
However, he noted that these are positive proposals which would address teething issues in Malaysia’s healthcare system.
According to the expenditure forecast for the ministry in 2023, human resources is expected to cost RM14.06mil compared to RM15.44mil in 2022.
Emoluments, on the other hand, are expected to hit RM19.72mil next year compared to the projected RM17.41mil for this year.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Muruga Raj Rajathurai said the 11.5% increase in the national health budget for 2023 is a significant improvement compared to Budget 2022.
Welcoming the news, he said it was a step in the right direction.
“MMA is glad that the government has recognised the need for a higher operational budget with an allocation of RM31.5bil for its operational expenditure, which we believe will go towards addressing the issue of ageing healthcare facilities.
“We also welcome its plans to increase healthcare facilities,” he said in a statement.
However, he hoped there would be further details on its plans for healthcare human resources, “which represent the heartbeat of our public healthcare system”.
“There is still a long way to go in addressing the issue of contract doctors and the shortages of specialists.”
He noted that the government’s emphasis on prevention via its various screening programmes was also welcomed.
“It is hoped this will encourage the public to take full advantage of the support given,” he added.
The 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, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz when tabling Budget 2023 yesterday.
The minister said RM4.9bil had been allocated to ramp up healthcare capacity.
This includes the procurement of medicines, reagents, and vaccines, among others.
This is a 12% increase from the 2022 allocation.
He said that RM1.8bil has been allocated for the construction of health clinics, hospitals and healthcare facilities.
This includes Hospital Maran in Pahang, five new health clinics, and a women’s and children’s wing for Hospital Melaka.
CT scan services will also be expanded, and this will benefit those in the interiors of Sabah and Sarawak.
He also said RM240mil had been set aside for the repair of dilapidated hospitals and public health clinics as well as to replace old equipment.
Tengku Zafrul said RM80mil had been allocated for the Peka B40 health scheme, including diabetes screening.
Another RM734mil will go to MySalam, which will benefit some 1.5 million people from the B40 group.
The government will also improve the Socso screening programme as an initial step to detect critical illnesses such as cancer and heart diseases.
“This programme will get an allocation of RM80mil and is open to 2.3 million workers registered under Socso’s invalidity scheme,” he added.
