Healthcare digitalisation
Malaysia needs a more integrated healthcare system
The CEO of Gleneagles Hospital Johor touts the need for collaboration across the entire healthcare system to reduce the gap between private and public sectors.
One key approach to reducing this gap between the public and private sectors involves stronger collaboration and knowledge sharing across the entire healthcare system to make the most of healthcare resources in the country
Over the last several years, a number of Malaysian private healthcare providers have increasingly established themselves as popular destinations for overseas medical tourists seeking high-quality care at an affordable price tag. While lower costs have been an important attraction, Malaysia’ s experienced staff and cutting-edge medical technologies have also played a vital role in this surge in popularity.
However, like in many other countries with subsidised government hospitals, the public healthcare system in Malaysia has struggled to keep pace with the private sector due to the high cost of new technologies and medications as well as the challenge of retaining staff.
“ Private hospitals have been introducing new innovations and technologies, and that comes with a price” Dr Kamal Amzan, regional chief executive officer of southern and eastern hospitals of IHH Healthcare Malaysia, told Global Health Asia-Pacific.“ And this has contributed to the widening gap over the years between what is offered in public and private hospitals.” This has also led to growing inequality between those who can access the best care available and those who can’ t. One example, he added, is robotic surgery, a technique that can result in shorter hospitalisations for patients, who in turn have to pay a hefty cost for it because the surgical approach is so expensive that only private hospitals and a few public ones in the country can provide the service.
Indeed, many public facilities lack the basic infrastructure to digitalise their services and implement key advancements, including the provision of electronic medical records.“ When it comes to public hospitals, the first thing is that many of the hospitals are very old— they have been around for a very long time. So, before full digitalisation, you need a very good, new kind of ICT wiring,” Shazurawati Abd Karim, a top executive at TM One, the public sector solutions arm of Telekom Malaysia Bhd, told the MIH Megatrends 2024 conference last year, according to Code Blue.
Public hospitals are also plagued by a dearth of manpower that makes for long patient waiting times. For instance, there were about 850 people on the waiting list for urgent heart surgery at the Penang General Hospital, while patients had to wait more than
a year for the same surgery at the Kuching General Hospital, Channel News Asia reported last year.
“ All these patients urgently need heart surgery. Heart conditions are unpredictable, and surgery should be done as soon as possible, but there is a shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons in the public hospitals,” said Dr John Chan Kok Meng, the Malaysian Association for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery( MATCVS) honorary secretary, to Channel News Asia.
One key approach to reducing this gap between the public and private sectors involves stronger collaboration and knowledge sharing across the entire healthcare system to make the most of healthcare resources in the country, Dr Kamal argued.
While Malaysians can easily access public healthcare by paying a small fee, most can’ t afford to check in at private hospitals as there’ s no comprehensive public programme to subsidise treatment provided by the private sector where, as a result, there is significant spare capacity to treat a larger number of patients.
Dr Kamal Amzan
58 ISSUE 1 | 2025 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific. com