Materia Medica Malaysiana

Utusan Malaysia Online - Work more closely on healthcare, private and public sectors told

PUTRAJAYA Aug 9 - The private and public sectors need to work more closely to safeguard the national healthcare system by managing the exponentially increasing demand on healthcare without sacrificing accessibility and affordability of services, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Saturday.

The deputy prime minister said that this urgent demand for healthcare was one main challenge faced by the country amid increasingly-stretched resources because of the societal and environmental changes and personnel shortages.

"One way to move ahead is by enhancing partnership (between private and public sector) in this area," he said when opening the Kumpulan Perubatan Johor (KPJ) Medical Conference 2003 here.

Abdullah said that he was aware of the many discussions between the private and public sectors on restructuring the financing and delivery of health services in Malaysia.

Different models pursued by other countries had been studied with the aim that a structure suited to Malaysia's condition would be formulated.

"Whatever the precise structure may be, the private sector will have the clear role in bolstering and complementing public services," he said.

Abdullah said that the focus clearly was on value for money care.

He said that the private sector had played its role in offering a comprehensive system which included health promotion and preventive and rehabilitative care for both the urban and rural population.

He said that greater private sector involvement was encouraging which led to the near-doubling of private hospitals and speacial-care homes from 119 in 1983 to 211 last year.

Indeed, selected urban centres are now very well served by private healthcare facilities resulting in doctor to patient ratio that is better than the national averages of Singapore, Britain and Japan.

However, Abdullah reminded medical practitioners against a backdrop of changing disease pattern while there was still an acute shortage of health professionals.

This included doctors, pharmacists and nurses, he said.

The deputy prime minister said that a vast improvement from before must be made because the current doctor to population ratio stands at only 1:1465.

He said that it was still far from Malaysia's target of 1:600 by 2020.

On training, he said that six public universities and three private medical colleges at present had expanded their capacities from producing 5,900 graduates trained in the 1996-2000 period compared to 3,250 in the previous five-year period.

He said that as of March this year, the Health Ministry had filled 77 percent of the near 13,000 ministry vacancies for medical doctors.

The Cabinet, he said, had approved the creation of 1,149 posts for foreign contract doctors.

"Despite these advances, much more needed to be done to mitigate the shortage of personnel," he said.

For instance, he said, out of the total allocation for foreign doctors, offers had been made to 404 doctors but only 135 had reported for duty.

Speaking to reporters later, Abdullah called on the Health Minitsry to look into this matter by expediting the recruitment process.

The ministry also needs to review the competitiveness of the package offered, he said.

"We must also draw up and implement effective incentives to attract even more Malaysian doctors working abroad to return home," he added.