THE Health Ministry is hoping to see its first RakanKKM patient by the end of the year, says Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (pic).
“We will begin with Cyberjaya Hospital. Hopefully by the end of the year, we want to see our first patient for the RakanKKM elective service,” the Health Minister said in Parliament’s Special Chambers session.
“Waiting time will be the biggest challenge,” he said.
He said the success of the scheme will be measured based on the patient wait times and the capacity to retain specialists within the public healthcare system.
He added that the staff involved in RakanKKM will receive compensation for their services.
He said although RakanKKM is a government initiative, the Private Healthcare Facilities & Services Act 1998 will apply for licensing purposes of RakanKKM Sdn Bhd.
“This will create a level playing field with the private sector. It will allow RakanKKM to be a credible benchmark in terms of competition and pricing,” he said.
However, he dismissed the notion that RakanKKM is the privatisation of healthcare.
“This initiative is owned by the government through Minister of Finance Inc (MOF Inc).
“For now, we (the Health Ministry) are the custodians, but it is owned by MOF Inc. This is nothing like privatisation.”
“Here we can see the difference with full-paying patients (FPP) service,” he said, adding that even FPP cannot be categorised as a private service.
He said RakanKKM will also have spillover effects on non-RakanKKM patients, as the latter too will have access to extended hours for services such as MRIs and CT scans, which usually may not operate after 5pm.
He was responding to a question by Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) about whether the initiative will actually expedite elective cases and whether the government’s premium economy service is a form of public healthcare privatisation.
“My question is, will this strengthen the public healthcare system or will it result in two service classes in our public (healthcare) system?” said the MCA president.
Dr Wee also asked whether there is a mechanism to monitor wait times with this initiative.
He also questioned whether this will lead to a disparity in services between patients in the public healthcare system, which is already grappling with serious backlogs, and those under the premium economy service, who will be paying a certain fee for the service.
