More partners needed to address healthcare

REFERRING to the letter “Beating Malaysia’s top preventable diseases” ( The Star, July 5), we concur with the authors who provided a brief overview on the issue of non-communicable diseases (NCD) globally and in Malaysia.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2015 showed a four-fold increase in obesity prevalence from 4.4% in 1996 to 17.7% in 2015, whereas type 2 diabetes increased from 11.5% in 2006 to 17.5% in 2015. In the same period, the overall prevalence of hypertension rose to 30.3%.

Despite the increasing prevalence of NCDs among the population, health remains a low priority for Malaysians. This is evident in the poor uptake of the Social Security Organisation of Malaysia (Socso) Health Screening Programme, which is offered to all Socso-insured employees above 40 years of age.

Converging issues such as an aging population, rising burden of NCDs, rising costs and quality issues in healthcare will challenge our national infrastructures and particularly health systems.

The Malaysian government administers a heavily subsidised public healthcare service ranging from primary to tertiary care to all citizens which appears to be unsustainable in the near future.

While we contemplate an alternative healthcare financing model to address the problem of sustainability, we can approach these converging issues by examining social determinants of health.

Addressing these social determinants has played a major role in the improvements in health that we see today. Poverty and health, for example, are inextricably linked. Also important are education, access to health services and environmental factors such as water supply and urban planning. Building sustainable communities would ensure that no sub-sect of the population has to endure systemic health disparities.

The recent announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail on the government’s initiative to form an inter-ministerial committee to address these social determinants is encouraging. The proposed national road map for children’s wellbeing is a fine example of how stakeholders from different agencies and interest can come together to tackle NCDs and related issues in the country. It’s time we realise the importance of getting partners outside the traditional boundaries of health and work together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals’ target of reducing a third of premature mortalities due to NCDs by 2030.