HEALTH COMMISSION PROPOSED
It will create an improved salary scheme for healthcare practitioners
THE Health Ministry will propose to the government to set up a health commission to safeguard the welfare of healthcare professionals.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said his ministry had held discussions with the Public Service Commission and the Public Service Department (PSD) to create a separate salary scheme for healthcare practitioners.
However, he said the proposal did not get the government’s support and approval at the time.
Under the proposed commission, he said, a salary scheme would be created for health practitioners with an improved salary scale.
At present, he said, their terms of employment were under the purview of PSD.
“From time to time, we find ways to ensure that the employment schemes of ministry officials are safeguarded in tandem with the quality services that we provide to the people,” he said.
Dr Subramaniam was commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahamad Zahid Hamidi’s call for the salary scale and scheme of health professionals to be reviewed to avoid a brain drain.
Speaking after launching the second version of the Malaysia Diagnosis Related Groups (MalaysianDRG) application at the National Cancer Institute here, Dr Subramaniam said he hoped that Zahid’s suggestion could be implemented.
On the MalaysianDRG, Dr Subramaniam said it was a database application that encompassed health management information, which included health costs developed by the Casemix system to enable his ministry to value add as and monitor the health services provided to people.
“Every year, Malaysians are able to access high-quality health services that are affordable and subsidised by the government.
“However, the ministry has to develop a method to calculate the real cost of the services provided to improve clinical administration in line with the health transformation programme.”
He said public and private spending accounted for only 4.49 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, of which 52 per cent or RM23 billion was spent by the Health Ministry to provide health services to the people. Bernama