The reformation of curative health care to preventive health care is a good start when addressing the inclusion of oral health care in general health programmes.
Industry players agree on the need for increased regulation and oversight of private care facilities, but opinions differ on whether separate legislation or the Senior Citizens Bill is the appropriate vehicle for this.
Senator Ras Adiba Radzi calls for increased public spending and better regulation of long-term care facilities and services, including regular quarterly auditing by government authorities or local councils, as well as a long-term care fund for care homes.
Care partners caring for parents with dementia, cancer, or gout say the Senior Citizens Bill shouldn't penalise adult children who send parents to care homes. They want more assistance instead; one had to quit his job in KL to care for his father in Sabah.
Residents at GreenAcres Retirement Village in Ipoh, Perak, speak about living “independently” as they age. Total Investment ED talks about government incentives for senior living.
Galen CEO Azrul Mohd Khalib proposes an aged care fund starting at age 45, while UM geriatrician Prof Dr Tan Maw Pin suggests written advance care directives.
Ipoh Timor MP Howard Lee urges the government to restructure aged care as an economy, instead of seeing it as a cost burden, stressing that the care economy plan must begin today, just in time.
The King’s Speech outlined the need to improve primary care services and upgrade MOH facilities; but it fell short of recognising that the public health care system is in crisis.
Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman also urges recipients of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine to get a 3rd jab, saying Sinovac is a 3-dose vaccine and the 4th dose is a booster, whereas an mRNA vaccine is a 2-dose vaccine.