BY NURA VALENTIANA & JACINTHA JOLENE
KUCHING: Public and private hospitals need to openly work together to reduce the burden of the people.
“Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia but has the least number of public and private hospitals.
“So far, private hospitals have assisted the government in managing patients who can afford to pay for healthcare,” said Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh.
“We are happy to share that some private Sarawak hospitals had played a significant role during the pandemic in terms of managing Covid-19 patients, non Covid-19 patients, vaccination and testing.
“The majority of private hospitals in the Peninsular and Sarawak provide significant assistance in controlling the epidemic’s spread among the community,” he added.
Dr Kuljit said this during the Networking Dinner with APHM held here on Thursday (Oct 27).
Though Budget 2023 seemed to be silent on further allocation of funds for public-private partnership (PPP) but private hospitals would continuously work with the government to lessen the load and shortening waiting time, he asserted.
“We will continue to partner the government to enhance good healthcare for the people.”
“Even though there are fewer hospitals here, Sarawak has an edge in terms of healthcare provision since it can be delivered more effectively.”
He added that private hospitals had done reasonably well during the pandemic and post-pandemic.
He expressed hope to have more Hospital Conferences and Medical Events in Sarawak.
Dr Kuljit noted that he was looking forward to enhanced incentives beyond the current ones so that they could encourage more of such events in Sarawak.
