PUTRAJAYA, Nov 2 — The Health Ministry (MOH) will adopt a leasing approach for medical devices, medical assets, and ambulances starting next year to enhance a greater public-private partnership, said its Deputy Secretary-General (Finance) Datuk Seri Norazman Ayob.
At the same time, the ministry will no longer purchase medical assets outright except for certain items of low or marginal value.
For example, assets like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, Computed Tomography (CT) scans, and ultrasound would be leased.
“We will lease our medical devices based on a lease-to-use basis. We will also be leasing our ambulances; we will no longer have our own ambulances.
“We are looking to outsource our ambulance services, which include using digital applications where the patient no longer needs to call an emergency number.
“It is like having a Grab service of sorts where we can track and trace the ambulance. We have set key performance indicators in terms of the response time of the ambulance,” he said at the KPJ Healthcare Conference today.
Norazman added that the ministry will also outsource some of its medical services and is looking into some of them, like cardiologist services.
“We will see which private hospital groups can meet our requirements regarding our standards and pricing, and then we will start outsourcing our patients to them.
“Apart from managing the congestion at the hospitals, this will also provide opportunity and convenience for our patients instead of having to come all the way to Kuala Lumpur, for example, IJN (National Heart Institute). Now they have the opportunity or convenience to be treated at the hospital where they are,” he said.
— Bernama
