KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced today that existing patients at the National Heart Institute (IJN) would be allowed to continue their treatment at the top cardiac centre.
According to IJN Holdings group chief executive Prof Dr Mohamed Ezani Md Taib, the hospital owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc.) has discharged approximately 4,000 government patients covered by the Ministry of Health (MOH) from outpatient services so far this year.
“IJN has become a controversial issue of late because a few government pensioners have been referred to other hospitals,” said Anwar, who is also finance minister, during the tabling of Budget 2025 in Parliament today.
“Based on this consideration, we have agreed to allow patients who have already been to IJN, especially those aged 65 years and older, to continue their treatment at IJN.”
Many government pensioners have been complaining about their discharges from IJN due to cost-cutting measures. A letter from a pensioner to CodeBlue published last February – which was widely discussed by lawmakers and ordinary citizens – triggered a clarification from the MOH, who claimed that patients are only discharged from IJN when their conditions are “stable”.
Dr Ezani recently told the media that IJN plans to increase its fees for MOH-referred patients by between 10 per cent and 40 per cent.
IJN said in a statement yesterday that the fee hike is “critical” to maintain delivery of high quality and affordable cardiac care, and provide advanced medical services, pointing out that its fee structure hasn’t changed since 2003.
