The ‘health-iest’ Budget thus far

 

The healthcare community may be one of the biggest gainers from the third Madani Budget 2025 announcement.

With a whopping RM45.3 billion allocated to healthcare (the second largest sector after education), the Budget seems to be a mixed offering of goodies meant to satisfy both the short-term demands of the landscape as well as to lay firm foundations in the long road to healthcare system reform in Malaysia

First among these goodies has to be the announced increase on on-call allowances for medical and dental officers serving in the health ministry, with increases from between RM55-65 per call depending on different service units in which these officers are serving. This translates to an increase of between 25% to 32.5% depending on different circumstances.

Some quarters are decrying this increase, especially since there had previously been urges to raise the on-call allowance to RM600 for a 24-hour shift.

However, it must be noted that the last such increase of on-call claims was in 2012, and prior to that, in 2005. Calls for such increases have been resisted by countless governments thus far, and it is finally in this Budget that the government has chosen to accede to this long-standing request.

So, while the amount of increase is still being argued over, many healthcare professionals are of the opinion that at least the tide is turning and that there is a health minister who has done something towards this end.

Equally important is the announcement of an increase of close to RM2.5 billion for emoluments, signalling that the government will move more contract officers (many of whom are facing serious challenges in terms of their job security, post-graduate training and futures in general) to permanent posts with expansion of training programmes to support their specialisations.

Taken together, the efforts to provide more permanent jobs for contract officers and the increase in on-call rates clearly indicate that the minister, the health ministry and the government as a whole is taking firm (and funded) steps towards addressing the serious human resource concerns plaguing the Malaysian health system.

Keeping younger health professionals on a stable track with permanent employment status and better remuneration for tasks being performed is a clear step in the right direction in terms of health system reform and something which many of the rakyat have been crying out for, for more than a decade.

The second big 

packet

 of goodies has been in terms of the allocations to build, upgrade and repair health facilities across the county – amounting to about RM1.5 billion.

This is further augmented by additional allocations of:

i) RM100 million for centres providing sub-speciality services such as the National Cancer Institute (cancer) and Hospital Selayang (hepatobiliary and transplants);

ii) slightly more than RM200 million to strengthen ICT facilities across both primary care and hospital settings;

iii) close to RM200 million on new ambulances and strengthening of the emergency response system;

iv) RM1 billion to build new primary health clinics in rural and remote areas; and

v) RM1 billion to build the Sarawak Cancer Centre.

While the beating heart of the public health system is the living healthcare professionals who deliver the services, it is often difficult to do so in dilapidated buildings with outdated equipment.

Hence the continued allocation towards the further upgrading of facilities, a trend continued from previous Madani budgets, is something that remains important and critical towards the greater goal of health system modernisation and transformation.

An interesting new aspect of the health budget is its exploratory foray into two long-awaited areas which is hoped can bridge critical gaps in the health system; namely the gulf between the private and public sectors and the inability to significantly improve public healthcare services overall.

RM144 million has been announced to outsource patients from health ministry facilities to other allied government facilities (university and army hospitals) as well as to private hospitals.

Together with continued funding for the Skim Perubatan Madani (RM100 million) and the PEKA B40 scheme (RM80 million), both of which outsource services at the primary care level to GPs, this acts to further strengthen joint delivery of health services across the different sectors, capitalising on the availability of resources in the private sector to improve health delivery.

While the PEKA B40 and Skim Perubatan Madani schemes are now a few years into implementation and are now more 

mature

 schemes in terms of implementation, there have been continued  calls from time-to-time for their dismantling, despite obvious successes and achievements.

By continuing the programme, and now expanding into outsourcing in the secondary/tertiary care areas to private hospitals, the government sends a clear message that it is committed to further bridging the gap and providing firm foundations towards better integrating our health system over the next few years.

While these are some of the bigger 

goodies

 in the health budget, there are quite a few more nuggets especially for the individual health consumer that are worth looking into, especially in terms of tax breaks.

All in all, this looks to be the 

healthiest

 Budget I have seen in a significant number of years. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.