KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — The free Madani Medical Scheme service was expanded nationwide from Friday, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Dr Zaliha said the expansion was done after overwhelming response from B40 households.
“Since the scheme was introduced, more than 130,000 outpatient treatments for acute cases were provided through private clinics and 80,000 households have benefited from this scheme.
“The number of treatments given has almost reached 4,000 a day and is increasing. Now, more than 1,300 private clinics have registered and cooperated in this programme,” she said when winding up the debate on the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review for her ministry.
Dr Zaliha said her ministry welcomes private clinics across the country to register under the Madani Medical Scheme panel and hopes MPs will promote the scheme in their constituencies.
The medical scheme is part of the government’s initiative to reduce overcrowding at government hospitals and assist the B40 group in obtaining acute primary care services or outpatient treatment at nearby private general practitioner (GP) clinics.
Dr Zaliha said the ministry is working to increase the number of physiotherapists considering the ratio of its physiotherapists to citizens is 1:17,878, while the ratio of government and private physiotherapists to citizens is 1:6,800.
“This number is still low and far from the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is one physiotherapist for 2,000 residents and as of August 31, there are 1,919 ‘Jurupulih Perubatan Fisioterapi’ and ‘Pegawai Pemulihan Perubatan Fisioterapi’ in the Health Ministry.
“Among measures taken to increase the number of physiotherapists is to increase the Diploma in Physiotherapy graduates of the Health Ministry’s Malaysia Training Institute, and in 2022, 76 graduates have completed their studies, which is an increase of 46 per cent compared to 52 graduates in 2020,” she said.
— Bernama
