The MIC president thanked Dzulkefly and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, saying the former opposition coalition had come to the defence of his ministry when it was faced with insufficient funds.

“The then-opposition kept raising the matter of the health ministry not having enough funds. So both sides were always concerned about improving health.

“If we can continue that now, we will have a top-notch healthcare system,” said Subramaniam.

Addressing reporters later, Dzulkefly said a new advisory health council consisting of both government and private doctors would be formed to advise the government.

“This is the kind of technocratic government led by knowledge and experience that PH wants to bring forward,” he said, adding that the council would be set up within the next three months.

He said a health scheme called Skim Peduli Sihat, as promised by PH, would also be launched.

Dzulkefly declined to name members of the new council, except for International Medical University president Abu Bakar Suleiman.

“I’d rather save the other names for later, but I assure you the council will be independent and apolitical.”

Dzulkefly said he appreciated Subramaniam’s contribution to the health sector, adding that he hoped to continue some of the work that was left behind, including strengthening primary healthcare.

“Primary healthcare is where you create a strong and healthy society, then we won’t need to waste so much money on things like curing more dangerous communicable diseases.

“Of course we will focus on that as well, but our primary focus will be primary healthcare,” said the Kuala Selangor MP from Amanah.

He said his ministry would also encourage greater involvement of private healthcare players to ease the burden of public hospitals.

“We will need to incentivise the private sector into working with the public sector. We don’t want to force the private sector into anything.

“How we incentivise them is the job of politicians and policies.”