Malaysia is going to expand private wings in the public hospitals under the Ministry of Health through the RakanKKM program aimed at enhancing revenue for public health services.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, as reported by CodeBlue, unveiled a plan to introduce the RakanKKM program, which is an expansion of private wings or the full-paying patient service in Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals.
The article noted that RakanKKM is part of broader healthcare financing reforms, aimed at channeling revenue generated from private wings to support public health services and retain specialists, doctors, and nurses within MOH.
“Revenues generated shall be harnessed into a cross-subsidising investment programme which benefits all in public health services, while retaining specialists, public doctors-nurses in MOH.” Dzulkefly Ahmad, Health Minister, said.
The article added that support for RakanKKM has been mixed, with concerns raised about the capacity of diagnostic equipment and staff for the initiative, as well as potential competition between private wings and their public counterpart for the same pool of resources.
