More funds needed to resolve public healthcare issues, says Zaliha

 

Health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said mental wellbeing and fair wages were among matters that needed to be improved on.

PETALING JAYA: More funding is needed to resolve multiple issues pertaining to the public healthcare system, says health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.

In a series of tweets, Zaliha said she would meet with the finance ministry to share more details and request for more allocation to put towards the well-being and salary of healthcare workers.

“Issues regarding their mental and physical health, human resource management, fair wages, job security and others will always be the health ministry’s priority since there are no easy solutions to these problems.

“We will meet with the finance ministry to share more details on the need for more allocation, covering all aspects such as digitalisation and human resources,” Zaliha said.

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She added that the health ministry would also hold regular meetings with other stakeholde

“This includes identifying short-term and long-term solutions that need to be prioritised. A large part of these changes will involve working across agencies.”

Earlier this week, healthcare news site CodeBlue reported that a large number of workers from the public healthcare sector were experiencing “high levels of anger and dissatisfaction” at the current state of the public healthcare system.

According to the report, 95% of the 1,652 respondents in its online poll, done exclusively with government healthcare workers nationwide, said they believed the healthcare system was in a “crisis”.

The report also said 73% of its respondents (1,205 people) hinted that they might quit the public health service. - FMT