Include us in your healthcare reform bill talks, MMA urges KJ

Focus

By ANIS ZALANI

03 Apr 2022 05:00pm

Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Koh Kar Chai hopes for engagements over the reforms with the health ministry.

SHAH ALAM - A medical group has asked the health ministry to discuss with them healthcare reforms which will be tabled in Parliament soon.

Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Koh Kar Chai said there have been no engagements so far.

“The Health Minister has said that the paper will include improvement in service which includes all Malaysians. Healthcare is for all and the health services do need to be people-oriented.

“The minister has gone on to say that he is looking at the welfare of the ministry’s staff which is another crucial matter, " he said in a statement.

In the past two and a half years, he said almost all government healthcare workers had gone way beyond their service to provide healthcare.

Koh added that MMA hopes that the minister will not overlook the contributions and efforts made by the private sectors as they had volunteered their services during the pandemic.

“There have been good public-private partnerships forged to provide good healthcare services and such partnerships should be part of the white paper as well,” he said.

The healthcare reform bill is expected to be tabled in Parliament in November aimed at strengthening country's healthcare system by ensuring accessible and high-quality services at affordable costs, it should also be sustainable in the long run.

The white paper, the health minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said is being developed and will be tabled in Parliament so that all health recommendations and reforms planned would be future proof.

Among the issues identified, he said, were the lack of staff, overcrowding, as well as lack of funds and equipment at the hospitals' emergency and trauma department, although it was not an isolated issue and generally reflective in clinics and hospitals.