Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan

Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Haji Ismail MericanThe future poses challenges which include a changing disease pattern,a well-informed and demanding public, rising costs, new medicaltechnologies, globalisation and liberalisation. The “business of health” ispeculiar and it is probably going to be the largest industry in the worldtoday.The industry offers immense potential for health benefits such as services andproducts, drugs and vaccines and new technologies.Access to healthcare and their effectivenessto meet the needs of the population dependon two important factors – how healthcareis organised and delivered and what typeof medical technology is used to make thedelivery more efficient.Since the 1980s, our healthcare service hastransformed into a two-tiered parallel systemwith a sizeable and thriving private sector.We plan to make further improvements bymaking people the priority in healthcare.The last five years have seen the developmentof newer tertiary centres with integratedcomputerised systems and state-of-the-artequipment.Despite the rapid growth in public and privatehealthcare expenditures, the Governmentremains committed to providing equitable,accessible and affordable healthcare forall Malaysians. A comprehensive range ofservices covering preventive, curative, dentaland pharmacy continues to be providedat highly-subsidised rates. Charges forhealthcare services have remained nominaleven though the total health spending hasbeen increasing steadily.Since the 1980s, ourhealthcare service hastransformed into a twotieredparallel systemwith a sizeable andthriving private sector.We plan to make furtherimprovements by makingpeople the priority inhealthcare The last fiveyears have seen thedevelopment of newertertiary centres withintegrated computerisedsystems and state-of-theartequipment.Careful planning and development efforts have enabled the country to progressthrough various phases of modernisation, in line with changing demographics,socio-economic and technological challenges. Compared with countries with similarsocio-economic status, Malaysia has done remarkably well in providing healthcarewhile spending only 4.7% of GDP on health.25