THE Health Ministry must engage all stakeholders when preparing the white paper on healthcare reforms, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament soon, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) said.

Its president, Dr Koh Kar Chai, said there has been no discussion between the ministry and the association regarding the matter. 

“MMA is glad to hear that the health minister is in the midst of preparing the white paper on healthcare reforms to be tabled in Parliament soon,” he said in a statement today.

“We are eagerly awaiting the stakeholders’ engagement on this as there has been no engagement done as yet.”  

Last Friday, Health Ministry Khairy Jamaluddin said that the ministry was in the midst of preparing a white paper on reforming the country’s healthcare system, which will be tabled in Parliament soon. 

He said the white paper also included improvements in service terms to customers, especially citizens. 

Koh welcomed the improvement in service terms, saying healthcare is for the people, and health services do need to be people-oriented. 

Khairy also said the white paper would include improving the rostering system and the welfare of the ministry’s staff. 

On this, Koh said healthcare workers deserve recognition for putting tremendous efforts in the past two and a half years, not only in combating the Covid-19 epidemic but also in performing beyond their terms of duty. 

He said recognition should also be given to private-sector healthcare workers. 

“The ministry’s staff do indeed deserve the accolades accorded to them. They have truly served this country of ours and deserve the ministry’s outstanding service awards,” said Koh. 

“We hope that apart from government healthcare workers, the minister will also recognise the contributions that have been made by the private sector, without whom, it would have been nigh impossible to make it through the early phases of the epidemic. 

“Many in the private sector had taken it upon themselves to volunteer their services to assist in the management of the epidemic.

“There have been good public-private partnerships forged to provide good healthcare services and such partnerships should be part of the white paper as well.”

Last month, Khairy told the Dewan Rakyat that the white paper on the national healthcare system would be tabled in Parliament in November for bipartisan support to ensure it is future proof in the event of changes in governments. – April 3, 2022.