IHH to acquire Prince Court Medical Centre by Q1,2020

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IHH Healthcare Bhd is expected to complete the acquisition of Prince Court Medical Centre in the first quarter 2020 on near unanimous shareholder support.

The government-linked health care provider announced that an extraordinary general meeting today, more than 99.99 per cent of non-interested IHH shareholders and proxies voted in favour of the conditional share purchase agreement between IHH’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Pantai Holdings Sdn Bhd, and Pulau Memutik Ventures Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, for the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Prince Court Medical Centre, for RM1.02 billion cash.

“This moves the Group closer to strengthening its market position in Malaysia and allowing it to better serve patient needs in the country,” IHH said in a statement.

Once the transaction is completed, Prince Court Medical Centre will become IHH’s 16th hospital in Malaysia. IHH currently runs Pantai and Gleneagles Hospitals in Malaysia.

Strategically located in the “Golden Triangle” area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Prince Court Medical Centre is a 277-bed private hospital offering a wide range of services including, among others, burns management, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases, interventional cardiology, in vitro fertilisation, nephrology, occupational health, orthopaedic and rehabilitation medicine.

“Adding Prince Court Medical Centre will empower us to bring our best-in-class care and outcomes to even more patients in Malaysia and abroad. With a broader network and stronger cluster of specialised tertiary hospitals in the Klang Valley, supported by a deeper clinical talent pool, IHH can offer a wider array of services and take on more complex cases.

“This will make our facilities even more compelling for both local and foreign patients, and further reinforces Malaysia’s attractiveness as a medical travel destination,” said Joe Sim, CEO of Malaysia Operations Division at IHH.

Prince Court Medical Centre medical director Dr Kuljit Singh said: “As part of the IHH Group, Prince Court Medical Centre can leverage on its scale and track record to unlock greater synergies and enhance our suite of service offerings and delivery of value-based care.”

/CodeBlue 09-12-2019

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Fee Deregulation, Doctors still oppose Dispensing Separation

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The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) still does not support separating the prescribing and dispensing of medicines to doctors and pharmacists respectively, despite the deregulation of physicians’ professional charges.

The country’s largest association of doctors said various health stakeholders had agreed back in 2015 that dispensing separation could only come about in a national health financing system, or a single-payer system.

A single-payer system means health spending is primarily made by the government, rather than the current multi-payer system that sees health care payments made by the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry, other federal agencies, private insurance, corporations, and people’s own out-of-pocket payments, among others.

“It’s not only the consultation fees. We’re talking about government structure, how they’re going to do that. What about the restriction? What is the audit trail? Will there be a duplication? Will there be fraud in the prescription? Who’s going to audit that? So there are lots of factors involved.

“So MMA will only support only when we have a single-payer system, which was agreed upon by all parties,” MMA Honorary General Secretary Dr R. Arasu told radio station BFM today.

The physician also said there must first be an electronic medical record (EMR) system that integrates patients’ medical histories between public and private health facilities, pharmacies, and general practitioner (GP) clinics.

“We must make sure the building blocks are in place,” said Dr Arasu. “Until then, dispensing separation is not feasible.”

The Health Ministry recently tried to criminalise non-compliance of mandatory prescriptions upon request, but was forced to postpone subsequent readings of the Poisons (Amendment) Bill 2019 in Parliament to 2020 after physicians’ and dentists’ groups expressed outrage against proposals of incarceration and fines for rejecting patients’ prescription requests.

The Health Ministry made a surprise announcement recently that GPs, dentists and specialists in private clinics and hospitals would be free to set their own consultation fees, 13 years after the professional rates of private medical practitioners were first regulated by legislation.

Clinic GPs had long been demanding that their consultation charges of RM10 to RM35, a rate set since 1992, be increased to their hospital-based counterpart rates of RM30 to RM125.

Dr Arasu assured Malaysians today that the total encounter fee in private clinics would either remain the same or only see a “marginal increase”, despite the deregulation of family doctors’ professional charges.

“So what we foresee is that the medicine price will be reduced and the doctors will start charging appropriate consultation fees for the services they actually provide for the patients.

Dr Arasu also pointed out that the deregulation of family physicians’ consultation fees would encourage GPs to provide other health services, like preventive counseling.

/CodeBlue 12-12-2019

Proposed Health Activities for 2020

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Malaysia is expected to see a revamped Health Financing System (HFS) if the Cabinet approves the healthcare reform proposal by the Health Ministry.

Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said he planned to bring the Sihat Bersama (Health Together) 2030 proposal to the Cabinet before the end of January 2020.

A sustainable (1) HFS (2) public sector transformation through corporatisation in order to become more empowered, agile and responsive and (3) private sector regulatory reform. These are the three pillars outlined in Sihat Bersama 2030 to transform the healthcare system.

“Unless you have the HFS in place, there’s no point in bringing reform in the government and private sector, ” Dzulkefly said. He said Sihat Bersama 2030, which is the health sector’s version of the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, would enhance existing healthcare services and address issues such as the lack of funds, long waiting period, lack of medical staff, the burden of non-communicable diseases and an ageing population. It will be a comprehensive plan that will address the health systems and healthcare delivery issues in the country.

He said the purpose of the HFS was twofold – (1) to increase pooled and prepaid health financing in a sustainable, diversified manner that is equitable and affordable for households and employers and (2) to establish a well-governed health financing institution.

Once approved by the Cabinet, a task force would be set up to look into implementation studies and communication strategies.

In Sihat Bersama 2030, the electronic medical record (EMR) system that stores the records of patients in public health facilities nationwide would be introduced nationwide to cut down waiting times and enhance patient care and population health.

EMR would be made accessible to private medical centres too, and could be used for research and decision-making on public health issues, and that the ministry would request proposals from the private sector to undertake the project this year.

Meanwhile, the price control mechanism and pool procurement of medicine would be rolled out by mid-year, he said.

On other measures, Dzulkefly said housemanship training would be reduced from 24 months to 18 months, and there would be five postings for training instead of six.

He also hoped to address service delivery issues such as reducing the waiting time and congestion in public health facilities by setting up 20 clinics, having more clinics with extended hours and expanding the use of e-registration and e-wallet payments.

The government will also increase the number of virtual clinics from the current five, while selected follow-up cases could use the virtual clinics manned by the same doctors.

On the concern over polio, the ministry has discussed with its Filipino counterpart about addressing the issue of stateless children in Sabah and the Philippines has agreed to fund polio vaccination of the children, with Unicef providing the cheaper vaccine that will be administered by NGOs.

The ministry has put in place a real-time surveillance dashboard to monitor disease outbreaks, hotspots, as well as facilities and doctors available.

When needed, district health officers would go to the ground to immunise the population at the hotspots.

As mentioned in the Budget 2020 announcement, pneumococcal vaccination will be rolled out this year, though no specific date has been set.

Meanwhile, the government will also expand the Skim Peduli Kesihatan (Peka B40) coverage to include individuals aged 40 and above from the low-income (B40) group.

Peka B40 provides health screenings and early intervention for non-communicable diseases such as cancer and mental health problems, and currently covers those aged 50 to 60.

A National Strategic Action Plan on Mental Health (2020-2025) will also be launched this year.

/theSTAR 02-01-2020

Malaysia 2020: Expected GDP growth at 4.8%

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The government remains steadfast in the belief that Malaysia will achieve an economic growth of 4.8% in 2020 as it expects to see positive effects from its development spending latest by June 2020, according to Finance Minister, YB Lim Guan Eng.

“We are confident about maintaining the projection, supported by a rebound in the commodity prices, growth in investment spurred especially by government spending, as well as expectations of a positive outcome to the US-China trade war, ” he told Bernama.

He was commenting on the downward revisions of the 2020 growth projections by economists. Last month, the World Bank Group trimmed its forecast of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for this year to 4.5% from 4.6% previously on weakening investment and trade activity recorded in the third quarter of last year.

“There was no problem in terms of development expenditure for ongoing projects, but new projects would have to be brought forward to 2020 and added to Budget 2020 (for new developments), ” he pointed out.

On the US-China trade war, Lim said the end of the dispute would be a booster or catalyst to spur the economy.“As an exporting economy, Malaysia will benefit.

/theSTAR 01-01-2020

Dengue cases Unabated

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The total number of dengue cases this year has reached an all-time high with 120,871 cases recorded as of Wednesday, December 2019 This averages out to about 331 new cases reported every day.

The previous high was recorded in 2015, with 120,836 cases.

In August, Deputy Health Minister Lee Boon Chye cautioned that the number could hit 150,000 by year-end.

The latest numbers were published on the iDengue website, which is run by the Health Ministry in collaboration with the National Space Agency.

The website, which is updated daily, noted that there have been 164 dengue-related deaths up to Nov 30, 2019 which had surpassed the 147 fatalities recorded in the whole of last year.

However, this is an improvement compared to the 336 deaths recorded in 2015.

The iDengue website provides information on hot spots, preventive measures and contact numbers of operation rooms in every state.

/theSTAR 05-12-2019

Private doctors and dentists' consultation fees deregulated

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Doctors and dentists in private clinics and hospitals can soon determine their own consultation fees, following a decision by the Cabinet to deregulate the fee structures and let free market reign.

The consultation fees must be displayed clearly so that patients are aware of the fees before getting treatment.The latest decision will strengthen the consumers' power to choose their doctors.

If patients are not happy with the charges or services received in any of the private facilities, they can lodge a complaint with the Private Medical Practice Control Section at ckaps.aduan@moh.my for further investigation.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who announced this, said the Cabinet had assessed the matter holistically and comprehensively as well as taken into consideration the recommendations from the National Cost of Living Council.

The Cabinet is also concerned about the need to amend the Seventh Schedule of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services (Private Medical Clinics and Private Dental Clinics) Regulations 2006, which has not been amended since it was enforced in 2006, he said.

"As such, the Cabinet has agreed to abolish the control over consultation fees under Act 586.

The abolition of the fee control will include all registered facilities (in the Seventh Schedule) and licensed facilities (13th Schedule), said Dzulkefly.

The fees for GPs and dentists, as stated in the Seventh Schedule, have not changed in 27 years and doctors have been calling for the fee harmonisation as provided for in the 13th Schedule of the regulations when it was revised in 2013.

In 2013, the consultation fee was gazetted for medical officers working in private hospitals under the 13th Schedule,except for GPs and dentists working in private clinics under the Seventh Schedule.

The current fees of RM10 to RM35 for GPs and dentists practising in clinics have not been revised since 1992 while medical officers at private hospitals who have the same qualifications have been charging between RM30 and RM125 per consultation.

/theSTAR 06-12-2019

2020 Rare Diseases is RM 16.5 mio

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The Ministry of Health clarified that the 2020 budget for rare diseases had actually increased by RM500K to RM16.5 mio.

The total budget includes a budget allocation of RM10 mio for 2020, as well as a current provision under Radiotherapy and Oncology activities of RM6.5 mio.

The government has also developed a National Framework for Rare Disease.

To this end, the Ministry of Health had developed the National Framework for Rare Disease to establish a governance committee to integrate the management of rare disease patients in Malaysia, in a comprehensive and holistic manner that includes advocacy for public health education, screening and patient diagnosis as well as strengthening prenatal diagnosis and newborn screening, clinical management, referral systems, data collection and rare disease-related research.

/CodeBlue 06-12-2019

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