25 August 2020: I was invited to participate as a panel speaker at the Malaysian Healthcare Conference 2020 organised by Kingsley Advisory & Strategic Initiatives which was officiated by YB Dato’ Sri Dr. Adham bin Baba, Minister of Health Malaysia.
I spoke on the prospect of helping public hospitals in managing their wait listed patients for procedures and imaging using digital platforms. Available services in the private hospitals can be easily identified based on the cost and available slots with a custom made digital application.
My view is the cost for government to buy services from the private hospitals is far cheaper than building their own facilities and maintaining them.
“The Malaysian citizens will benefit with digital technology and definitely this will enhance public private partnership” as I mentioned in my talk which was chaired by Tan Sri Dato Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman of International Medical University IMU and he was the previous Director General of Health.
Later during mid day the former minister of Health Datuk Seri Dr. Dzulkefly bin Ahmad mentioned that there should be collaborative efforts between public and private in managing the country’s healthcare as he spoke on ‘The Importance of Primary Care and the Impact of Co-Vid 19″
The Director General of Health TAN SRI DATO’ SERI DR. NOOR HISHAM ABDULLAH in his special dialogue later mentioned that there are on-going discussions on insurance schemes like PEKA B40 to assist patients to access health care in private and later on to extend this to the other groups of the population [M40 and T20].
We hope with this pandemic, our thinking and forward planning will be geared towards digital technology which will be patient centric both in public and private. Patients should not be denied early treatment and all resources in the country should be utilised.
Full payment in private healthcare sponsored by the government will be beneficial to the patients who are waiting for treatment in the government healthcare facilities. Mechanisms can be worked-out on the implementation of this referral system for treatment in the private hospitals. There is no loss of tax payers money as the entire treatment cost is spent within the country which in-directly will be returned to the government in terms of taxation and job opportunities. This will also help the private healthcare in the country to sustain as there are economic challenges particularly with the reduction of medical tourist.
