Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah

SUNGAI PETANI, Sept 23 -- The government was urged to provide a bigger allocation through the 2020 Budget for the Health Ministry to improve the quality of health services in the country.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said one of the things to be focused on was to increase the number of specialist and medical personnel posts at the government hospital.

"We, the Ministry of Health hope to spend more (in the 2020 Budget) on the Ministry of Health, in an effort to improve the quality of our services; in terms of gaining more posts for our specialists and medical personnel," he said at a press conference in Semeling, near here today. 

He was commenting on the ministry's expectations for the 2020 Budget which is scheduled to be tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng on Oct 11.

Dr Noor Hisham noted that the ministry had formally forwarded the recommendation to the Finance Ministry to be considered in the budget.

In another development, Dr Noor Hisham said two haze-related illnesses, namely asthma and conjunctivitis have recorded an increase in cases in the state from Sept 15 until last Saturday compared to June 30 to Sept 7.

He said asthma cases increased by 44 per cent from 35 to 50 cases, while conjunctivitis increased by 50.9 per cent from 11 to 16 cases.

"While the URTI (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection) disease has decreased to 7.1 per cent, from 692 cases from June 30 to Sept 7, to 643 cases from Sept 15 until last Saturday," he said.

He noted that there were two Haze Sentinel Facilities, namely the Bakar Arang Health Clinic and the Kulim Health Clinic which monitor haze related diseases in the state.

Earlier, Dr Noor Hisham signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of the Health Ministry with the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) represented by its vice-chancellor and chief executive, Emeritus Professor Dr Harcharan Singh Sidhu, for the cooperation in the National Community Health Empowerment Programme (KOSPEN) Plus.

Through the MoU, both parties will increase their commitment to spur health initiatives through the programme, which is an initiative to promote a healthy lifestyle and to achieve a work-life balance.

-- BERNAMA