KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — The government has implemented various initiatives and spent RM178.9 billion since 2009 to continue providing quality health services to Malaysians.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said among them was the 1Malaysia Clinic initiative, which was first introduced in 2010 and and had grew to 361 branches nationwide so far.
“The 1Malaysia clinics are placed at strategic locations throughout the country, open seven days a week from 10am to 10pm, offer minor treatment at a charge of only RM1 and free of charge for the elderly as well as people with disabilities.
“Recently I also read a sharing on social media on how 1Malaysia clinic saved the life of a patient from an allergy to bees, through precise diagnosis of the patient’s condition and so forth,” he said in a posting in his blog najibrazak.com, tonight.
Najib said the government also announced many facilities for Malaysians such as building and upgrading six hospitals in Perak, Sarawak, Kelantan, Kedah and Sabah.
He said cancer centres and heart centres were also provided at major hospitals in every zone, providing treatment for more than 300,000 patients besides allocating RM50 million annually to ease the cost of haemodialysis treatment, benefiting a total of 1.5 million patients.
“At the same time, the government also looks at generating the country’s economic sector and increase employment opportunities through the health tourism industry. In 2016 this industry managed to generate RM1.12 billion and we aim to generate RM2.8 billion by 2020,” he said.
He said Malaysia has many advantages for health tourism, including the expertise of doctors who are among the world’s best, health services that are not only superior but so much cheaper, for example, a heart transplant surgery in United States that costs between US$70,000 to US$200,000 compared to an average cost of US$9,000 in Malaysia.
Najib said all these initiatives had made Malaysia to be ranked as the world’s best Health and Medical Tourism destination for three consecutive years.
Monitoring, maintenance and upgrading would not only be undertaken to infrastructures and buildings, but also in terms of the level and quality of living for its health staff, he said.
He stressed that the government would pay serious attention and consider all health-related issues so that Malaysians continued to enjoy quality healthcare wherever they are. — Bernama
