KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 – Newly-appointed Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam wants to focus on increasing public awareness on health issues, especially early detection and prevention of diseases.
He said early detection could save lives or avoid more serious health problems, besides reducing government expenditure on public health. He noted that the government allocated RM10 billion to RM12 billion annually on the people’s health.
“I pledge to raise the health level of Malaysians, particularly through better access to and delivery of health facilities for the rakyat (people), especially the low-income group whose level of health awareness is still low,” he said in his SMS text to Bernama.
Dr Subramaniam said that according to a study, six out of every 20 people in this country faced overweight problem and three out of every 20 were categorised as obese.
He said he would also continue the ministry’s good, healthy relations with the health professional groups so that the close cooperation would contribute to improved health levels in Malaysia in comparison with other countries.
According to him, the World Health Organisation had recognised Malaysian as among the countries that provided the best health services to their people.
Dr Subramaniam also thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for placing his trust in him to helm the Health Ministry.
“As a medical doctor for 26 years before, I’ve had wide experience in the medical field and related issues,” he said.
– BERNAMA
