PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry (MOH) will adopt a leasing approach for medical devices, medical assets and ambulances starting next year in a bid to enhance a greater public-private partnership, said its Deputy Secretary-General (Finance) Datuk Seri Norazman Ayob (pix).
At the same time, he said the ministry will no longer purchase medical assets outright except for certain items of low or marginal value.
Assets such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, Computed Tomography (CT) scan, and ultrasound for example would be leased.
“We will lease our medical devices based on a lease-to-use basis,“ he said at the KPJ Healthcare Conference here today.
“We will also be leasing our ambulances, we will no longer have our own ambulances. We are looking to outsource our ambulance services, which include the use of digital applications where the patient no longer needs to call an emergency number.
“It is like having a Grab service of sorts where we can track and trace the ambulance. We have set key performance indicators in terms of the response time of the ambulance,“ he said.
Norazman said the ministry would also outsource some of its medical services, thus is looking into some of these medical services such as cardiologist services.
“We will see which private hospital groups can meet our requirements in terms of our standards and pricing, and then we will start outsourcing our patients to them.
“Apart from managing the congestion at the hospitals, this will also provide opportunity as well as convenience for our patients instead of having to come all the way to Kuala Lumpur, for example, IJN (National Heart Institute). Now they have the opportunity or convenience to be treated at the hospital where they are,“ he said. -Bernama
