PETALING JAYA: The government should raise the budget allocation for development in the health sector so more public hospitals can be built to serve the more densely population areas such as the Klang Valley.
Health expert Dr Lim Chee Han said the shortage of development expenditure had caused existing public hospitals to be over-congested given the demand from the public for medical services at these institutions.
Lim, who is a researcher at Third World Network, pointed out that there were only two public hospitals in the Klang Valley - Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang.
However, it is worth noting, the Shah Alam Hospital has been in operation for four years, and the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) – under the purview of the Ministry of Education – has been around for a long time.
“People who live in the Klang Valley may have to travel up to 30km to seek medical advice,” he said at the Monash Health Economic Forum 2019, here today.
Lim noted that there was a shift in focus in the health budget allocation from 2010 to 2019.
“In 2010, 75.3% of the budget went to operating expenditure and 24.7% was spent on development,” he said.
He said the allocation for hospital facilities and development was highest then, but it declined in 2017 before picking up again the following year.
In 2010, the Health Ministry’s budget was RM14.76 billion and in 2019 it was RM30.6 billion.
But in 2019, operating costs accounted for 92.4% of the budget, leaving on 7.6% for development.
He said that to maintain hospital operations at an optimum level, the ministry had to keep raising its operating expenditure.
