KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (Bernama) -- A preliminary analysis by the Health Ministry indicated that the public are happy with the existing public sector health services, which is of high quality and affordable, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
However, the Prime Minister said they had also voiced their concern about the long waiting time, insufficient staff, crowded facilities and problem with accessibility.
"The Ministry of Health is in the midst of a public engagement road show to seek feedback on the people's experience with the current health care system and to obtain from them, ideas and suggestion on how to improve the present system.
"So far the road show has covered 10 states. Based on this feedback, we know that we need to address three important areas, first to strengthen the public health system and indeed, we are doing it," he said in his speech at the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Annual Dinner here tonight.
Also present were the Prime Minister's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
Najib said the government was building more facilities, providing better equipment, training more high quality human resource, credentialing its staff and implementing Quality Improvement and Risk Management systems.
"For example we are increasing the number of our medical graduates from local as well as foreign institutions in order to improve our doctor-population ratio from 1:791 in 2011 to 1:400 by 2020.
"We are also extending a moratorium on new medical schools in order for the existing ones to enhance their education programmes and train better quality graduates," he said.
He said that the government was also increasingly emphasizing on performance measurement and improvement with clinical and other performance indicator monitoring and improvement.
"We also need to make most of what we have of our current health care system such as developing synergies between the public and private sectors," he said.
Najib also proposed a collaborative effort between the ministry and private general practitioners in improving the chronic disease management.
"The results of the National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2011 showed that an estimated 80 per cent of patients with known diabetes and hypertension are regularly seeking treatment at the 985 public health clinics and 141 hospitals.
"It is not simply about prescribing medications but more importantly, empowering people living with these diseases to make positive changes in their lifestyle to proactively manage their health condition," he said.