KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) today urged the government to ensure its upcoming white paper on reforming Malaysia’s healthcare system gives sufficient attention on key health issues that have had to take a backseat to the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years.
The MMA said the country needs to renew its focus on key health areas such as geriatric care, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), rare diseases, cancer, and the wellbeing of healthcare workers.
“The nation has been so preoccupied these past two years on infectious diseases mainly on Covid-19 and its variants,” MMA president Dr Kor Kah Chai said in a statement.
Kor said one of the white paper’s priorities should be to implement policies that support and promote healthy aging in a bid to minimise the need for treatment of illnesses among senior citizens.
The healthcare system must also include policies on healthcare screening to bring NCDs under control, which would in turn promote a healthier population that is more resilient to future pandemics, he said.
To manage cancer and rare diseases, Kor said the government needs to set up a mechanism to make treatment more financially accessible to the masses, including by investing in local research centres to develop homegrown treatment modalities that could bring costs down to affordable levels.
He also emphasised the need to improve on the wellbeing of healthcare workers by providing a conducive working environment and proper human resource planning so they are able to perform at their best.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the white paper will aim to strengthen the healthcare system to ensure services are more equitable, of high quality, accessible and affordable in the long term. He expects to table the white paper in Parliament in November. – The Vibes, March 17, 2022
