KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — Bentong MP Young Syefura Othman has defended the government’s decision to allow patients to pay for expedited elective procedures in public hospitals via Rakan KKM.
The DAP lawmaker, who is also a member of the Health parliament special select committee (PSSC), noted that access to care for emergency cases in government hospitals remains equal to everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
“It’s not privatisation per se. It’s more of a cooperation and investment by government-linked investment companies to give access to people who can afford a little bit more competitive prices, rather than the private health sector which can cost more,” Young Syefura told CodeBlue today.
“I see this as a win-win. The public gets better services from the money we get from people who can afford more (that goes into improving facilities and financial incentives to health workers). The ones who can pay a premium can get more affordable prices than in the private sector.”
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told a press conference yesterday that Rakan KKM, priced above cost, will provide paying patients faster access to elective procedures in government hospitals that public patients would normally have to wait six to seven months for.
Rakan KKM – which is expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year in Cyberjaya Hospital, Putrajaya Hospital, Sultan Idris Shah Serdang Hospital, and the National Cancer Institute (IKN) – utilises government facilities and human resources in the overburdened public health care system.
Rakan KKM aims to allow patients to cut the queue for specialist services in elective cases, even as the public health care sector faces massive shortages across every specialty. Based on Ministry of Health (MOH) data, the public service only has 44 per cent of specialists needed this year.
Dzulkefly previously characterised the underuse of wards and operating theatres in Cyberjaya Hospital and Putrajaya Hospital, due to staff shortages, as “excess capacity” for Rakan KKM.
A few doctors have slammed the new inequality in the public health care system introduced by Rakan KKM. Dr Lim Kuan Joo, former Perak state health director and former Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) director in the 1990s, said public health care is now no longer based on need, but on one’s ability to pay.
“Sad, very sad to see erosion of equity and equality,” Dr Lim wrote on Facebook.
“Each day, as the time for procedure is limited, those urgent, semi-urgent cases will have to share the truncated time caused by giving way to those who can pay.”
Contract doctors’ group Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) said elective cases under Rakan KKM must only be done after hours, even though this is a service that patients are paying for.
“And the specialist and personnel must do the work themselves (reviews, procedures) etc after office hours and do not abuse their trainees, medical officers or house officers. Those who abuse the system should be banned indefinitely,” HDK wrote on Facebook.
In a statement earlier today in response to CodeBlue’s report that the public health service faces a shortage of nearly 11,000 specialist doctors this year, Young Syefura called for an increase in public health care spending to 5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“This includes reviewing the current fee structures in health care facilities based on affordability, besides exploring more public-private partnerships in health service provision,” she wrote on X.
Young Syefura also urged better interministerial cooperation in planning health human resources, pointing out that Malaysia faced a glut of medical graduates several years ago. This forced the government to adopt the contract system for doctors.
“But now, the number of medical graduates is declining every year, leading to a forecast of rising specialist deficits by 2030.”
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) legislator further stressed the importance of preventive care through healthy and active lifestyles, including work-life balance, residences with public parks, and access to healthy food to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes and hypertension.
