KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — A total of 106 of the 403 projects to upgrade the facilities of identified dilapidated clinics with a RM150 million allocation this year have been completed as of July 30.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni said 296 projects are still in the implementation stage and one is in the pre-implementation phase.
Under the same initiative, 436 projects were also identified and approved with RM110.45 million in allocations last year.
“The Health Ministry is always committed to ensuring that health assets are well maintained to provide the best health services to the people. For that, the ministry appointed a concession company under the Hospital Support Service (PSH) programme in hospitals and the Medical Equipment Enhancement Tenure (MEET) programme in MOH clinics to carry out comprehensive maintenance.
“The implementation of this PSH programme involves 148 MOH hospitals nationwide while the implementation of the MEET programme involves all health and dental clinics in Penang, Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan,” he said during the question-and-answer session at Dewan Negara today.
Lukanisman was responding to Senator Datuk Aziz Ariffin’s query on the measures taken to ensure that each health asset is well maintained and how many poor clinic facilities have been identified.
He added that the maintenance process includes implementing scheduled maintenance, repair of damage, and implementing the Electrical Safety Test, as well as operational training for users at health facilities.
All the maintenance was carried out per the manufacturer’s regulations and related standards to guarantee optimal functional quality for medical equipment while also ensuring that medical equipment is safe to use.
In the future, the concession company’s services that also supply health assets to MOH facilities will be improved since the implementation of supply through the “Lease to Own” programme currently has certain weaknesses.
“The Lease to Own programme is good but sometimes the equipment we receive after the end (period) of the concession was beyond economic repair. So we slightly changed the use (concept) of leasing, so that we can make sure that the equipment provided will always be maintained.
“Within a certain period, the equipment will be changed to a new one and for the equipment returned to the supplier (concession), we will make sure it can form a secondary market (resell) outside,” Lukanisman said.
— Bernama
