Expand private-public partnership

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Dr Christina speaking to the media yesterday. On her left is Dr Zulkifli.

KOTA KINABALU: There is a dire need to further explore the partnership between the State’s public and private health providers for the benefit of all.

State Health Director Dr Christina Rundi said at the launch of the 34th Scientific Meeting on Medical Imaging held at the Hotel Promenade near here yesterday.

She said the public and private health providers should strive to complement each other.

She saidt the State Health Department had been outsourcing some of the services not rendered by them to the private sector for some time.

However, these encompassed a small number of services and should be explored further, she said.

In her speech earlier, Dr Christina said that the government lauded the establishment of more private hospitals as this helps to reduce the dependence of the general public on government hospitals and clinics.

She said that members of the community who could afford the services rendered by private hospitals and clinics preferred to seek these to address their health issues.

“The high price charged by the private hospitals means that many people cannot afford their services. But at another aspect, their high income means that they can afford to purchase the latest and the most modern of equipment…this will further raise the quality of treatment available in Malaysia,” she said.

Dr Christina also said that the government transformation programme is geared towards attaining the developed country and high income status by the year 2020.

In order to attain the government’s aspiration, she stressed the importance of joint partnership between the public, private, organizations and the community.

She also said that the government had improved the accessibility to health facilities and services following the introduction of the 1Malaysia Clinic.

“Folks from the rural parts of the country have benefited from the service with a minimum payment of RM1,” she said.

Dr Christina also spoke of the development in the imaging technology since it was discovered more than a century ago.

Imaging technologies used in the health facilities included X-rays. The more recent imaging technologies are the PET and SPECT.

She said that the advancement of technology must be complemented by improved service delivery and urged members in the health fraternity to improve their command in soft skills such as communication.

“Apart from acquiring technical skills, we must also improve our soft skills…we have received a lot of complaints due to our lack of communication skills,” she said.

Meanwhile, Senior Director of Commercialisation and Technology Planning Programme Nuclear Malaysia, Dr Zulkifli Mohamed Hashim said that safety, quality and reliability were again used as the theme for the 34th Scientific Meeting on Medical Imaging seminar.

He said that the event was held each year in order to improve the safety practices on ionizing radiation in medicines.

He also said that the seminar was a programme that was able to improve the radiology medicine services rendered by both the government and private hospitals and to further ensure the quality of the service offered to the public.

The seminar was jointly organized by the Malaysia Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia) , Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) , Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), Malaysian Radiation Protection Association (MARPA) and Nuclear Medicine Society of Malaysia (NMSM).