SHAH ALAM: The Health Ministry will soon announce its plan on Healthcare Financing Reform following its commitment to strengthen and improve the nation's healthcare system.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the reform agenda, among others, will focus on innovative and creative ways to spend the yearly allocation from the government.
"... we were stranded because we are essentially a predominantly tax-based system and getting RM41.2bil (allocation) for this year and given RM6.07bil for development expenditure. Truly, we are all along being underfunded, understaffed and overworked.
"If you don't allow me the resources, allow me to be resourceful and I will have innovative and creative ideas to ensure that we can spend and drive our expenditure in a creative way," he said during his speech at Avisena Specialist Hospital Expansion Groundbreaking Ceremony here on Monday (June 10).
He said as an upper middle-income country, the nation should spend 6% to 7% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare instead of 5.1% now.
Dzulkefly applauded the private sector's efforts to complement the public healthcare system while also urging the former to be involved in value-based healthcare.
"As an upper middle-income economy we must spend close to 6 to 7% (of GDP) but of course this minister is not able to ask and demand for more allocation because of our fiscal constraint, then we looked at the private sector to be helping us to drive the health expenditure," he said.
Meanwhile, Dzulkefly said the ministry was also carrying out efforts to optimise the use of wards by offering daily patient treatment care at main hospitals and through the digitalisation of the Bed Management Unit to centralise the system through the Critical Patient Response Centre in hospitals.
He said the move was in line with the target of a hospital bed ratio of two beds to 1,000 residents by the end of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) to 2.06. – Bernama
