KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — Kidney disease and cancer patient groups have protested against steep cuts to health spending, warning of patient deterioration or even death.
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) said a significant portion of the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) budget goes to patient care services.
“Reducing the budget will adversely impact clinical outcomes, including morbidity, mortality, and quality of life. Correcting these adverse impacts will require more resources and funding,” NKF chairman Dr Zaki Morad Mohd Zaher told CodeBlue.
He added that slashing the MOH’s 2026 budget might affect NKF’s kidney replacement therapy (KRT) services. The dialysis charity provides treatment to nearly 1,800 patients across its 32 haemodialysis (HD) centres nationwide.
“MOH’s subsidies for KRT programmes, including to NKF, are substantial. We may have to use our savings to make up for the shortfall,” said Dr Zaki, who is also a consultant nephrologist.
“We may also cut back on our screening and prevention of kidney failure programmes to divert funds to patient care (dialysis). This is important as we cannot stop dialysis. We may cut down on our dialysis frequency if worse comes to worse.”
Government dialysis facilities manage less than 30 per cent of patients with end-stage kidney disease in Malaysia. The vast majority receive dialysis in private or non-governmental organisation (NGO) centres like NKF. Patients with kidney failure can’t survive without dialysis.
When asked if health care funding was more important than fuel subsidies, Dr Zaki said this was a difficult question because fuel costs directly affect NKF’s activities, since suppliers need to transport dialysis consumables frequently to its HD centres.
“Patients have to use their own or public transport to commute at least three times weekly. Higher transport costs add to the financial burden of an already financially stressed dialysis population.”
National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM) managing director Prof Dr M. Murallitharan said health spending cuts wouldn’t just affect health care services for cancer, but services across the board.
“The proposed reduction may affect patient access to medication, delays in timely care and eventually the long-term economic and societal costs,” Dr Murallitharan, who is also a public health physician, told CodeBlue.
“The proposed reduction may also affect preventive initiatives and community-based screenings, which in fact may lead to disruption in interventions to increase early screenings nationwide.
“We urge a reconsideration towards the proposed budget cut and for more policy efforts to focus on optimising subsidy targeting while ensuring health care funding remains protected.”
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad revealed at a press conference yesterday that he expects a whopping 10 per cent cut to the MOH’s RM46.5 billion budget for this year, as the government aims to cut spending across ministries to manage surging fuel subsidies. This amounts to RM4.65 billion, much higher than the Treasury’s initial proposal of an RM3 billion cut for MOH.
The health minister pledged to protect “essential core services” from spending cuts, such as basic health services, patient treatment, emergency care, and drug and medical device supplies.
