The Health Ministry, which is at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, should have been given a much higher allocation than the RM31.94 billion under Budget 2021, said a health expert and a former minister.

They said that while the government was spot on in allocating the amount that largely catered in efforts to stop Covid-19 and procuring vaccines, other areas of preventive or promotive health should have also been included.

They also said the allocation for the ministry next year was not far off from this year’s budget, which was RM30.6 billion.

Epidemiologist Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud said while the allocation for Covid-19 would help to a certain extent, it would be beneficial to have more funding.

“As expected, the government has made provisions for immediate requirements for fighting the pandemic, such as to procure vaccines for the population.

“The amount is somewhat similar to what has been spent for this year, plus the RM3 billion that is allocated for Covid-19 vaccines,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

“I am unsure how many doses are expected for the vaccine procurement but that would depend on the unit price of the selected vaccine or vaccines.”

He added that there was some allocation for teaching hospitals to cope with Covid-19 patients but the amount was not large and will need to be spread out among a number of hospitals. 

He also welcomed the RM100 million allocation for infectious diseases. 

Awang Bulgiba said some of this funding should be channelled towards epidemiological modelling, which would be useful in the fight against the current coronavirus wave. 

Apart from that, Awang Bulgiba hoped that funds would be channelled towards accelerating the development of locally produced Covid-19 diagnostics kits, which would reduce the dependence on antigen and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests kits sourced from abroad. 

“We also need to carry out behavioural science research to ameliorate pandemic fatigue and into the long-term health, economic and socio-cultural consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, as it would give us some much needed data and help Malaysia improve its pandemic preparedness plan,” he said. 

The health expert hoped that the off-take allocation for vaccines would be used not just for fill and finish, but for vaccine technology transfer, which would form the basis for Malaysia’s own indigenous capability. 

“This would go beyond Covid-19 of course. I am not sure which ministry or ministries will get this allocation as most researchers specialising in infectious diseases are in the universities,” he added. 

Awang Bulgiba also said the tax relief for vaccines like that for pneumococcal and influenza, will help in terms of reducing the population’s susceptibility towards contracting respiratory infections. 

“Increased tax exemption from RM6,000 to RM8,000 for other medical expenses is also welcomed and an increased tax exemption from RM500 to RM1,000 for medical check-ups is also welcomed, although this is not directly related to Covid-19,” he said. 

However, Awang Bulgiba also said there was a lack of allocation towards other areas of preventive or promotive health, aside from Covid-19.

He said this was pertinent as non-communicable diseases contributed to increased morbidity in Covid-19. 

Meanwhile, former health minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad tweeted that the expansionary budget should focus on strengthening the health sector and returning the people’s welfare. 

“The government must spend! Don’t be too concerned about fiscal deficit especially in health,” he said in an immediate reaction to the budget.

Dzulkefly said if the emoluments for contract workers were taken out of the equation, the allocation for the ministry would be lower than the RM30.6 billion allotted by the Pakatan Harapan government under the previous budget. 

“Emoluments (for) contract workers (is) RM1.9 billion (in Budget 2021). Hence it is lesser. RM31.94b - RM1.90b = RM30.04 bilion compared to the allocation (by) PH RM30.6 bilion. 

“Observe the difference in the quantum fact,” he said in a simple calculation.

He claimed this would mean that areas such as medicine programmes, public health, pharmacy services as well as research and technical support would receive lower allocations. – November 6, 2020.