New govt must get public health right, says DAP man

 

Liew Chin Tong wants health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah replaced for his ‘bad calls’ which he says has caused major repercussions.

PETALING JAYA: The survival of the next government hinges on its success in reducing the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths, DAP’s Liew Chin Tong said.

Hence, getting public health leadership right is a crucial test for the new prime minister. This includes appointing a competent health minister, he said.

The former deputy defence minister said that while the important ministries were traditionally those of finance, home, and defence, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the health ministry a crucial one.

The new health minister should be a highly competent political leader to enable confident and effective communication of difficult health policy changes to the Cabinet, and more importantly, to the public, he said.

Liew also called for the health minister to handle the coordination of the vaccination programme.

“While Khairy Jamaluddin did a great job under the previous Perikatan Nasional-led administration, he was hampered by the fact that he wasn’t running the health bureaucracy.

“We need to reform the healthcare system beyond Covid-19. The pandemic exposes all the existing weaknesses which would require leadership, political will and vision to rebuild,” he said.

Liew also wants the current health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah replaced, citing several of the latter’s “bad calls” which had major repercussions.

This included the delay in approving vaccines by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and test kits by the Medical Device Authority (MDA), which Noor Hisham oversees.

“The health DG’s insistence on using RT-PCR tests and hesitancy to deploy RTK-Antigen tests slowed down testing significantly,” he said.

Liew went on to say there was also a need for strong a civil service in the health sector and this could be done by placing experts at all levels of the ministry.

The finance or procurement heads in the health ministry need not only be good in finances, but must have sufficient knowledge and understanding of medical devices.

“There is a need to find a way to develop expertise and specialisation in the generic civil service.

“Perhaps the health ministry is where new arrangements could be implemented first, given the importance of public health now and in the years to come.” - FMT