KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 22 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) is committed to ensuring the continuity of private clinic operations through outsourcing to enable them to remain competitive in the market.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the intervention measures were critical to building a healthy healthcare ecosystem, as well as safeguarding the welfare of private medical practitioners.
“I am very aware of this matter and I have personally dealt with the closure of private general medical (GP) clinics in the past, especially during COVID-19.
“We want to ensure that they not only survive but are able to thrive and continue their service operations because they fill the gaps,” he said when answering a question from Dr Halimah Ali (PN-Kapar) during the Oral Answer session at the Dewan Rakyat, today.
Halimah, through her supplementary question, said the private primary healthcare industry is currently reportedly under pressure due to the issue of a decline in the number of trainee doctors, with 2,034 private medical clinics reported to have closed since 2013.
To maintain operational sustainability, Dzulkefly said the government had taken proactive action by increasing the floor price for service fees for private medical practitioners under existing legislation to RM80 compared to RM10 previously.
Earlier, when answering Halimah’s original question, Dzulkefly said the network of private GP practitioners is actually the backbone of the country’s primary care system by acting as a frontline bulwark.
“The primary healthcare system, which consists of 2,916 MOH health clinics and 10,208 private GP clinics, is actually the backbone and pillar of the basic primary health system,” he said.
Therefore, he said structured collaboration between the public and private sectors is very critical to balance the health burden in government hospitals, especially in dealing with the wave of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
“As we look at the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), we have included aspects of NCD disease management in collaboration between private clinics and our health clinics (MOH),” he said.
Halimah in her original question wanted to know whether the ministry planned to strengthen the primary healthcare model through close integration between government clinics and private practitioners for NCD management to reduce hospital congestion like in the United Kingdom and Taiwan.
— BERNAMA
