The allocation for medicines for all university hospitals was reduced by RM5 million in MOHE's 2021 budget; it's unclear how much money has been allocated for teaching hospitals' drugs under the special RM1 billion Covid-19 sum.
The former health minister calls for a caucus comprising public health experts outside MOH to work with MOH in handling the Covid-19 epidemic in Malaysia.
Doctors and pharmacists say that under a consolidated 2021 MOH budget, with nothing at all allocated for pharmacy aside from staff emoluments, individual departments that typically run out of money by July or August have no safety net while waiting for extra funding approved under the Supplementary Supply Bill to come in.
The total number of samples taken for RT-PCR in Sabah has increased from 3,500 a week in September to 25,000 to 40,000 samples a week in October and November; Sabah’s lab capacity is only able to process about 2,700 test samples a day, or 18,900 a week.
Julau MP Larry Sng says the ratio of Klinik Kesihatan to the population is 1:13,129 for Sabah and 1:11,682 for Sarawak, both more than double Pahang’s ratio at 1:5,048.
Both Kuala Kedah MP Dr Azman Ismail and Jerlun MP Mukhriz Mahathir want more funds to combat chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
The former DPM also asked the government to ensure that frontliners’ families are taken care of during the pandemic, such as their child care and studies.