A HEALTH think tank said Budget 2023 is not a game changer for healthcare, despite the significant increase in allocation. 

Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy chief executive officer, Azrul Mohd Khalib, said the budget was an effort to address long and teething institutional problems caused by previous underinvestment, such as ageing infrastructure and retaining skilled healthcare workers.

“The government also wants to address the contract doctor issue by increasing the line item for contract recruitments, but seems to not have increased permanent positions despite large increases in emoluments across the board. This is obviously intended to fund the promotion of existing staff and increase salaries to support retention of skilled healthcare workers,” he said in a statement.

Azrul also said that the establishment of the National Centre of Excellence for Mental Health was welcome, but it would have been better for the allocation to go fully towards investing in ensuring that the country has more psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals.

“We need to increase availability and coverage of mental health services, which currently are inadequate. We need more service providers, or at least means for people to access both public and private mental health services. This will require long-term investment and commitment,” he said.

Azrul said that despite the finance minister recognising that Malaysia was still in pole position among countries in this region with a high population who are obese or living with non-communicable diseases, little has been done to address this situation.

He added that he was disappointed that there was no mention of any commitment to address the issue of healthcare financing and investing in a sustainable long-term solution. 

“In order to ensure that Malaysia’s healthcare system is able to continue to provide quality, affordable and accessible health services for all in the decades to come, and tackle the challenges of preventing and treating non-communicable diseases (NCDs), of mental health and an ageing population, the government must summon the will and commitment to invest now in a new sustainable approach to funding health. We did not hear that,” he said.

Putrajaya had allocated RM36.1 billion to the Health Ministry in Budget 2023, of which RM31.5 billion was for operations spending and RM4.63 billion for development expenditure.

The ministry’s allocation was an increase of RM3.7 billion or 11.51% compared to the RM32.4 billion allocated in 2022. – October 8, 2022.