PETALING JAYA: The government should allocate a larger budget for public hospitals to outsource the treatment of their non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals, says the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM).
Its president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said there is currently a special budget being used for the outsourcing of services for non-Covid-19 patients in public hospitals waiting for treatment.
In light of Budget 2021, he urged the Finance Ministry to consider granting a greater allocation for such purposes as it will benefit public hospital patients who can instead be treated at private hospitals.
“Our proposal is to extend the budget beyond December 2020 into 2021 and to increase the quantum.
“We believe this partnership will be sustainable as there is enough capacity and resources in private hospitals to assist patients from the public hospitals to be treated earlier, ” he said in a statement issued earlier this week.
Dr Kuljit added that the Health Ministry has specific guidelines on outsourcing treatment services, which has benefitted public hospital patients in 2020.
He said that the amount spent on such patients who can be treated in private hospitals would be far cheaper than building new healthcare facilities under the Health Ministry.
“We would propose that the savings from this can be channelled to further manage the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, as the private hospitals with this budget would be able to lessen the clinical burden of the public hospitals, ” he said.
