PRIME Minister Najib Razak stated in his budget speech that the government will provide quality healthcare services with an allocation of RM27 billion in 2018 and promised among a long list of things:

1. RM2.5 billion for medical supplies

2. New Hospitals and wards (total capacity of 1,100 beds costing RM2 billion)

* RM1 billion for two blocks of women’s and children’s wards at Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital and Putrajaya Hospital with a capacity of 300 beds each.

* RM500 million for a cancer hospital at Sungai Petani with a capacity of 200 beds.

* RM 500 million for a new block at Pulau Pinang Hospital with a capacity of 300 beds.

However, a closer look at the budget itself shows the promises do not stand up to scrutiny.

* Budget for pharmacy and supply (012200 Farmasi dan Bekalan, page 372) shows a reduction from RM1.292 billion in 2017 to RM1.227 billion in 2018. A reduction of RM65 million to purchase medicine for patients. The allocation was much higher at RM1.59 billion in 2016.

* Allocation for new hospitals (00400 Hospital Baharu, page 377) was reduced from RM210.2 million in 2017 to RM180 million in 2018. A reduction of RM30 million and probably just enough for 100 new hospital beds.

As we know, Malaysian government hospitals and clinics are expecting higher than ever number of patients.

Our population alone is expected to increase by 1.32% at more than 400,000 to more than 32 million next year. We need 800 new hospital beds alone to keep the ratio of two beds per 1,000 population. And the cost of 800 new hospital beds will be more than RM800 million.

We also expect to have an aging society and an older population means more health problems.

On top of that, the economic slowdown also resulted in a 20% to 30% drop in business of private hospitals. These patients will instead be treated in government hospitals.

The triple whammy above will risk seeing the already overstretched government hospitals collapsing.

We need to increase our allocations for supply medicine and new hospitals just to maintain the same quality of care, not by cutting the allocation and talking wishfully of quality healthcare. In reality, we can only expect longer queues and lower quality healthcare in 2018.

It is time for the people to see through the rhetoric and empty talk of Najib. We can only really improve the health service by cutting corruption and improving the economy to get real funding increases for new medicine and hospitals. – October 31, 2017.

* Dr Ko Chung Sen is the Kampar MP.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.