Saving healthcare costs through pool procurement

PETALING JAYA, Aug 7 (Bernama) -- The proposed pool procurement in healthcare between public and private hospitals can help save costs by between 40 and 50 per cent in terms of medicines and hospital services and bring bigger volumes of medicines into the country.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Ministry of Health is in discussions to merge private and public hospitals in a pooled procurement system that could also bring down the cost of healthcare management.

The pool procurement if done among countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand could help bring down the cost of healthcare in the ASEAN region. 

Dr Noor Hisham said this in his plenary speech at the MERCY Malaysia International Humanitarian Conference (MMIHC 2019) here today. 

Previously, the Health Ministry said it was looking into the possibility of implementing a pooled procurement mechanism for essential medicines to address the issue of monopoly that increases the cost of drugs supplied to government hospitals nationwide.

Meanwhile, the three-day conference from Aug 5 to 7 saw various humanitarian advocates from around the world touching on current key issues in the humanitarian context.  

MMIHC 2019, aimed at promoting and understanding humanitarian action and advocacy, is organised by Mercy Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA