KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Health (MOH) spent RM248.97 million to outsource 93,495 heart patients to Institut Jantung Negara Sdn Bhd (IJNSB) starting from January to May 31 this year alone.
The Ministry of Health, in a written answer in Dewan Negara which was uploaded on the Parliament's website, said that the treatment expenses involved heart patients from government employees, federal pensioners and also poor patients.
"For 2023, the total number of heart patient visits at IJNSB stands at 233,885 and the government's expenditure on treatment costs is RM606.52 million," said MOH in the reply.
The ministry said this in response to a question by Senator Datuk Mustafa Musa who wanted to know the number of heart patients across the country and the total cost of medicine, treatment and specialist services for last year and this year.
Last year, the ministry spent RM316 million to cover the cost of procurement of medicines required for the treatment of heart disease while from January to June this year it was RM130 million.
Based on case mix data, the Ministry of Health said the average cost of treatment for heart patients (inpatients) at Ministry of Health hospitals for the year 2017 to 2020 is as much as RM5,072.05 per patient, with a minimum cost of RM2,154.45 while the maximum cost is RM52,215.13.
According to data from the Health Information Centre (PIK), the Ministry of Health stated that a total of 259,259 heart patients received inpatient treatment at government hospitals nationwide in 2023 and another 641,590 patients received outpatient treatment while 450,960 patients received treatment at health clinics.
Meanwhile, in response to Senator Dr A Lingeshwaran's question regarding the number of nurses and community nurses who resigned or retired from 2014 to 2023, the Ministry of Health said it involved 5,778 people.
This covers U29 Grade nurses (2,284 people); U32 Grade (2,102 people);Grade U36 (462 people) and Grade U41 to U54 (161 people) while for community nurses, it includes Grade U24 and U26 (393 people) and Grade U19 (376 people).
The Senate sitting was adjourned this afternoon and will resume next Monday.
-- BERNAMA
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
