The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia stated on Thursday (August 18) that the Ministry of Health's proposal to raise the nation's public health expenditure to 5% of GDP from approximately 3% currently should be implemented under Budget 2023 as the current public healthcare expenditure is no longer viable.

In a statement, the association's president, Datuk Dr. Kuljit Singh, suggested that the country's public health spending increase should permit private general practitioner practices and private hospitals to collaborate more closely with the public sector to advance wellness and support preventive health measures.

Investment in digital technology that uses applications for healthy lifestyle intervention would further assist the citizens in getting early access to healthcare screening at privately funded facilities.

"In order to support the national effort, screening centers in private hospitals are ideally positioned to contribute to preventive healthcare.

"Private hospitals would like to be taken into consideration as a component of a link in the healthcare ecosystem about strengthening the primary healthcare system, whether it be public or private, and optimizing resources.

For a better continuum of care for patients, Kuljit said, "We may not be the primary provider, but we might play a part in a referral or co-managing the patient." As a result, we must be able to communicate with primary healthcare (providers) and public hospitals.

He claimed that while private hospitals care for individuals who have the financial means to pay for private healthcare, they currently place a significant load on the government healthcare system.

He claims that through foreign medical tourism, private healthcare providers also help the nation's economy.

Private hospitals would be pleased to help the government in assisting government hospitals in the process of becoming autonomous and self-sustaining,' as indicated by the Minister of Health, as they have close to 50 years of experience.

Our collaboration will extend beyond patient care to include other technical and knowledge-sharing aspects of healthcare delivery, according to Kuljit.

The World Bank's statistics, which were downloaded on January 30, 2022, show that Malaysia's health spending in 2019 accounted for 3.83% of GDP.

The 2019 health spending for neighboring nations Singapore and Thailand was reported at 4.08% and 3.79% of GDP, respectively, while Indonesia's figure was recorded at 2.9% of GDP.

According to a Monday (Aug. 15) Bernama article, Malaysia's Health Ministry is requesting that public health spending be raised to 5% of GDP to assure that Malaysia would eventually have a public health system that is of international standards.

The standard for public health spending in an upper middle-income nation, according to health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, is between 4% and 5% of GDP.

Nevertheless, he claimed that Malaysia only allots 2.59% of GDP to public health spending at the moment, which results in many patients complaining about the lengthy wait times for services like computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging in government hospitals.