Health Ministry’s strategic plan impacts delivery of health services — Subramaniam

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry’s Strategic Plan ( 20162020) has had a high impact on strengthening the delivery of health services and improving the level of people’s healthcare needs, says Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

The Health Minister said among the successes achieved was the provision of specialist services in each group of cluster hospitals to ensure optimum utilisation of human resources and avoid congestion at general hospitals.

He said the implementation of the cluster hospital concept which was a smart initiative by the government, had improved the general quality of service, and allowed specialist services to be more widely available to the people via partnerships, as well as optimal utilisation of existing resources at lower costs.

“This is not only beneficial to the ministry but also patients, as they can now seek specialist care at any district hospital nationwide.

“For example, the introduction of cluster hospitals in certain states such as in Pahang, where specialist physicians are provided at district hospitals such as in Temerloh, Kuala Lipis and Jerantut, have reduced the congestion of patients at general hospitals,” he told reporters after presenting the 2017 Ministry of Health Excellent Service Award (APC ) to 381 staff of the ministry here yesterday.

According to Dr Subramaniam, another prominent achievement was the integration of health screening data system for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to efficiently and effectively address them.

He said the integrated data – which was still being consolidated – would be able to be accessed by public and private medical practitioners to further improve the quality of Malaysian healthcare services. — Bernama