BN wants to increase fees for heart healthcare - STOP it, and make it free healthcare for all not just the rich..

Free Universal Healthcare - that is what we must be striving for in Malaysia.

Every person should be able to go to government clinics and hospitals and get the necessary healthcare for free (or for a token RM1 or RM5...), and this we could get before for all aspects of healthcare...

Then, the government 'privatized' heart healthcare - and created the National Heart Institutute (Institute Jantung Negara). It started closing down heart healthcare facilities in all other government hospitals..

But wait - to go and get healthcare at the Institute Jantung Negara - we have to PAY - and pay a lot. [And, if you cannot pay - you can go and die....]

Only free for Government workers and their families - Federal,State,Local Government - also the ADUNs and the MPs(as they are also considered Public Servants). Is that why MPs and ADUNs are not fighting for free good universal healthcare for all in Malaysia...

It is about RM35,000 for a by-pass...I heard. Who can afford this?

Go watch 'SICKO'(now showing on ASTRO) - and we certainly do not want to follow US when it comes to healthcare. We must look at UK, France, Cuba, Canada...

Malaysia, at one time wanted to even privatize all hospitals - and then they stopped and started going back to building government hospitals, specialist hospitals, etc...

The primary objective is to be able to provide free (affordable) healthcare to all persons in Malaysia - not to make money (and certainly not to attract and cater for medical tourists...)

Guess what? The government want to increase IJN fees - they are complaining that they spent a lot of money subsidizing IJN - hello, this is people's money, and this subsidy was for public servants (& family) only not the private citizen...

FREE for all persons in Malaysia - citizens, foreign spouses, foreign workers...any person in Malaysia.

STOP Medical Tourism - we still do not have the capacity to cater for the heart healthcare of those in Malaysia.

Stop trying to make money (generate income) through healthcare...it is so inhumane..it is so un-Malaysian..

Patients at the National Heart Institute (IJN) may be paying higher fees soon under a review that comes in the wake of a RM215 million government payout to the centre last year.

The money was used to subsidise treatment for government servants and poor patients.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the government would decide on the new fees for citizens while IJN could do the same for foreigners.

"We may allow IJN to decide on the fee for foreign patients," he said after opening IJN's 24 outpatient clinics and international patient centre at its new wing yesterday.

The last review was in 2000 but was only implemented in 2003 because of the economic downturn.

Liow said the hospital had catered to more than 1.5 million patients since its inception 16 years ago with more than 41,000 heart surgeries and 95,000 interventional procedures performed.

Built in 1992 at a cost of RM151.5 million, the institute has become the country's premier institution for cardiac treatment.

The hospital has undergone a RM230 million expansion programme since 2005 to cater to the increased patient load besides buying more equipment and building a new wing.

Liow said the ministry would open eight regional cardiothoracic centres in collaboration with IJN in Penang, Alor Star, Serdang, Johor Baru, Kuantan, Kota Baru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu to cater to the increasing number of heart patients nationwide.

"Some of them will be built under the 10th and 11th Malaysia Plans while some existing centres will be upgraded to be regional cardiothoracic centres where open heart surgeries will be performed."

He advised IJN to help the government to train and produce cardiothoracic surgeons to meet the demand when the centres became fully operational.

Admitting there was an acute shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons in the coun-try, Liow hoped that more could be produced with IJN's help.

He will also look into IJN becoming a centre of excellence for Heart Lung programmes.

Earlier, Liow, who visited the outpatient clinics which can cater to some 600 patients a day, was impressed with the new wing which he described as patient-friendly and equipped to provide the best care to patients.

IJN chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Radzif Mohd Yunus, who briefed Liow on facilities at the six-storey new wing, said it would be opened in stages from this month.

"We will eventually have 438 beds to meet the needs of patients," he said, adding that this would include 54 at the intensive care unit, 40 at the Coronary Care Unit and 26 at the day-care centre.

The centre will also have six catheter laboratories, seven operation theatres, a hybrid Cath-OT, 59 specialist clinics, a rehabilitation centre, special counters for executive screening programmes and an international patient centre. - New Straits Times, 1/7/2009,Govt to review IJN fees

Look at IJN website - If I am not a 'Government Patient' - I fall in that other class. I need to pay RM500-00 deposit. I need to a Guarantee Letter from my boss or my insurer - before they are going to provide me with healthcare. -- It is really impossible for the ordinary Malaysian to get heart healthcare in Malaysia - what more others in Malaysia..

CARING Malaysia - I think not.

GOVERNMENT PATIENT

• Government patients include officers and their dependents (spouse and children) and pensioners of Federal Government departments
• State Government departments
• Local Authority / Statutory Body departments whose treatment charges and hospitalisation bills are borne by the departments.

Criteria

• Must be referred by a specialist / physician from a government hospital
• Present Guarantee Letter / Pension Card during registration

Required Documents

• Identification Card, birth certificate (if below 12 years old)
• Referral letter from referring hospital Latest Chest X-Ray & Cine Film (if any)
• Pension card and its copy Guarantee letter* (GL) from Head of Department (for government officer/Statutory Body/Local Authority/State Government)
• Certification letter* from college/university (if patient is below 21 years old and uses parent’s GL from government office
• Service book for an ex-army who had served more than 10 years
• Certification letter** from Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam/Jabatanarah Rekod dan Pencen/Jabatan Hal Ehwal Veteran ATM/Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri
  

Should you have any inquiry and/or need further information on the above, kindly contact us.

Note :
* All documents must be original. GL should clearly indicate patient’s medical entitlement.

** This document is required if the patient’s name is not stated in the pension card or service book.

PRIVATE PATIENT

Patients who pay their treatment charges and hospital bill or borne by their employers or covered by their insurance policies.

Required Documents

• below 12 years old)
• Referral letter from referring hospital
• Latest Chest X-Ray & Cine Film (if any)
• Insurer's/Company's guarantee letter* (if hospital charges are borne by the company/employer/insurer)
• Deposit for private paying patient RM500.00
• Utility bills copy for certification of current address
• Income Tax J Form / Latest salary slip / EPF Statement

Should you have any inquiry and need further information on the above, kindly contact us.

Note :
*All documents must be original. GL should clearly indicate patient’s medical entitlement. - IJN Website

They advise persons above 35 to do regular screening, and the 'selling price' is - yes, that is exactly the term that is being used by the Malaysian Government National Heart Institute - it should be free. RM1,399 - For many, this means 2 - 3 months salary.

Therefore, now the rakyat will not go for heart screening - and heart ailments that could have been prevented is not - and more Malaysians will die... Najib and the UMNO-led BN is after all more concerned about MONEY that they can make - not the health and life of human beings in Malaysia. [see earlier post:-More will die sooner because of lack FREE government-provided heart healthcare in Malaysia] Remember, Najib was for selling the IJN to Sime Darby...

Selling Price : RM 1399

Optional:

64 slice MSCT calcium scoring - RM 350.00

64 slice MSCT coronary angiogram - RM 2.500.00

Cardiac rehab programme phase II - RM 30.00

Najib is now PM - and sadly, the human concern for healthcare of sick is not his priority..

Najib today said the proposal would have some advantages for IJN as funding would not be a problem for Sime Darby and doctors would also receive better remuneration.

"Given the need for better treatment of heart diseases and the competition from new hospitals coming up, it is possible to pinch doctors from IJN," he said. - Malaysiakini, 18/12/2008 - Gov't gives green light to IJN privatisation

And what about the poor - the DPM wants a pledge..., and it is something so vague...and maybe they will take in a handful of poor, and that would be a fulfilment of that pledge. What about the rest of the poor and middle-class? Do we just die sooner by reason of the government's failure to provide the required healthcare for its people?

Najib said Sime Darby must pledge its commitment that the poor would not be marginalised if IJN is to be transferred to it.

"Whatever the position of IJN, it is important for the social programme to be given high priority," said Najib, who is also the Finance Minister.- Malaysiakini, 18/12/2008 - Gov't gives green light to IJN privatisation