KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The Health Ministry plans to launch the Malaysian Health Transformation Initiative which converges public and private health systems together rather than diverge them.

Minister, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the initiative was currently in the development phase and consultations would be held to seek the input of all stakeholders to ensure its sustainability and long term viability.

"The aim is to have a sustainable and resilient health system that provides equitable, affordable and accessible high quality health service to the rakyat.

"In the end, the public and nation will be the real winner from this finely balanced ecosystem,” he said in the National Transformation Programme Annual Report which was released by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), Prime Minister’s Department today.

Dr Subramaniam said throughout the years, Malaysia had benefited from the dichotomous health system whereby the public and private health system co-existed and leveraged upon one another to provide health service to the public.

He added the healthy ecosystem needed to be enhanced further whereby, collaboration, cooperation, smart partnership and mutually beneficial health policies and initiatives could be crafted to pave way for a better symbiotic relationship between the two systems.

Meanwhile, the report stated that initiatives under the Healthcare National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) which focus on the clinical research, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare travel sector had achieved 100 per cent of its Key Performance Indicator (KPI) last year.

The pharmaceuticals industry recorded exports of RM737.31 million, maintaining its momentum as the highest value Entry Point Projects (EPP) in the Healthcare NKEA.

The report said the medical devices sector represented another area which had allowed Malaysia to spur growth, recording RM9.69 billion in exports last year.

The healthcare travel sector has recorded significant increase in revenue from RM527.3 million in 2011 to RM1.12 billion last year and is targeted to reach RM1.3 billion this year with one million healthcare travellers, following various collaborations and engagements with target markets like Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Myanmar.

"The Healthcare NKEA will retain its focus on driving growth in key economic engines such as medical device exports and health travel, while also assisting with the implementation of the blueprint for health transformation to ensure the sector’s optimal utilisation of government resources,” it said. — Bernama