Focus on day care health services
Published on: Friday, September 18, 2015
Tuaran: The Health Ministry will be proactively promoting day care health services in government clinics that can perform surgeries with less days to be hospitalised as a major transformation of the nation's healthcare.Minister Datuk Seri Dr Subramaniam, who disclosed this, said day care health services in government clinics will be given more medical tasks to carry out so that patients could seek treatment without being hospitalised or just cut the number of days warded.He said the move is a revolutionary process in the overall healthcare system in the country under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP).
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"I adopted the move when I met the Health Minister of the Netherlands at the World Economic Forum in China who told me that 95 per cent of healthcare services in the Netherlands was outpatient treatment cases as a result of providing day care health services."Hence, I believe this would further strengthen primary healthcare services in our country from hospitalisation to non-hospitalisation medical services," he said here, Thursday.Subramaniam said patients who undergo surgeries can come in the morning and return home in the afternoon which could cut the high cost of being hospitalised and also they would not be exposed to certain health risks at the hospitals.For instance, he said surgeries to treat cataract patients could be done at the day care service whereby the patients can return home the same day.
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"We have started this move by placing the day care in many hospitals such as in Kuala Lumpur, and the very strong day care is in Ipoh, Perak where many operations and surgeries have been carried out, unlike before where few such non-hospitalisation operations were done."In Sabah, such day care has been set up at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Tawau Hospital which seem to run smoothly as one way to cut high hospitalisation costs. This is a major challenge and transformation that we are taking up to further improve the whole healthcare system in the country," he said.
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To a question, Subramaniam said there is limited funding to build new hospitals under the 11MP. However, several proposals have been received to upgrade quality medical services in district hospitals.In a related development, he said his ministry has a plan to upgrade clinic facilities in Kota Marudu to enable the clinic to carry out more efficient and effective treatment.He said this upgrading will include providing facilities like in hospitals such as dialysis and x-ray.On the education empowerment announced by the Prime Minister on Wednesday, Subramanian said this is also possible to be applied in healthcare education in the country."There are 33 medical institutions and colleges in the country of which 11 belong to the Government.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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