KUALA LUMPUR: There are limits to the government’s ability to build more hospitals and hire specialists at its healthcare facilities, says Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
“Even if we build hospitals, there is a possibility that it will be a challenge to hire medical specialists,” he said during the Prime MInister’s Question Time (PMQT) in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 28).
For now, he said, the Special Task Force to Reform the Public Sector (STAR) was implementing several initiatives to reduce overcrowding in government hospitals.
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Among them are collaborating with private hospitals to provide healthcare services, he added.
“If government hospitals cannot attend to patients due to long queues or such, they will be referred to private hospitals, where the fee is pre-negotiated and agreed with the government hospital.
“This might be a short-term solution (to overcrowding) while we build more hospitals based on districts and states' needs,” he added.
Fadillah was responding to Oscar Ling (PH-Sibu), who asked about measures to address overcrowding in government hospitals.
Fadillah also said that among the reasons for the overcrowding was that the public healthcare quality had improved.
“But it also shows that Malaysians do not practise a healthy lifestyle.
“So we must promote a healthy lifestyle as a preventive step,” he added.
Fadillah said as of last year, there are 355 hospitals in the country, 209 of them private and 146 government; and 11,577 clinics, 8,419 private and 3,158 government.
