KUALA LUMPUR – Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said that the government’s move to allocate 10.75% of its RM421 billion budget for 2025 underscores its commitment to reforms for healthcare services.
In comparison with the total 2025 Federal Government Budget, he said the allocation for Health Ministry marks a significant step towards enhancing the well-being of the population by ensuring universal access to quality healthcare services.
Dzulkefly said this expenditure is viewed as a critical investment to keep Malaysians healthy, enabling them to continue contributing productively to the national economy.
He also said the allocation would help the ministry shift its focus on healthcare services from “sick care” to “wellness promotion”.
In a statement, Dzulkefly said that the ministry would adopt the “whole of society” approach in providing primary healthcare in a bid to create a more fair, sustainable, resilient and quality healthcare system.
“The rakyat would continue to be educated on “self transition” from disease treatment to disease prevention to improve and protect their health,” said the minister.
Among the initiatives provided for the ministry in this budget is the RM 1.35 billion allocation for maintaining healthcare facilities such as repairing dilapidated hospital toilets and patient wards; and the RM300 million allocation for upgrading dilapidated clinics.
Additionally, RM100 million has been allocated for the certification of specialists in MoH’s facilities such as Hospital Serdang for cardiology and Hospital Selayang for transplants and hepatobiliary.
On allowances for healthcare workers, Budget 2025 raised on-call allowances from RM55 to RM65 for medical officers and dentists based on certain services and departments.
On public health campaigns, Putrajaya boosted the “War on Sugar” campaign in this budget by imposing a 40% tax home on sugary drinks starting January 1 next year
Dzulkefly also thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for allocating RM45.27 billion to the ministry, which is the second largest allocation received by the ministry after the Education Ministry in this annual budget.
The budget given to the ministry under Budget 2025 is RM4.05 billion or 9.83% more than the RM41.22 billion allocated under this year’s budget.
“All the initiatives that were approved in this Budget 2025 will be implemented by the ministry immediately to ensure that their benefits could be enjoyed by the rakyat, in line with the Malaysia Madani aspirations,” added the minister. – October 19, 2024