“The balance of patients that cannot be treated early at the public facilities should be transferred to the private hospitals at reasonable reimbursements as was done last year,” said APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh.

“This will help to clear the backlog at a faster rate as it will not be realistic for the government hospitals to do this on their own,” he said in a statement today.

Noting that private hospitals have competent consultants, specialists and nurses as in public hospitals, Kuljit said that more than 95% of the country’s private specialists were formally trained and had worked in the public hospitals in the past.

“In some parts of the country, there are more private hospitals than public hospitals. Though the total number of beds may be fewer, the facilities for investigation and treatment can be made available based on the capacity and capability of the individual private hospital,” he said.

On Saturday, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the ministry hoped to clear the backlog of surgical and medical procedures at government hospitals this year, after critical treatment was put off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kuljit noted how private hospitals helped decant thousands of non-Covid-19 patients during the peak of the pandemic last year, when healthcare services were stretched to the maximum in dealing with the Delta variant.

He said this process occurred in a “very seamless manner” throughout the Greater Klang Valley, Johor and Penang.

He also said private hospitals were supportive of Khairy’s proposal to reform the healthcare and healthcare financing system, which he said was “long overdue”.

Stating that APHM would be happy to work with the ministry and take part in the Health Reform Commission when approved by Parliament, Kuljit said the initial steps of treating government-sponsored patients at private hospitals should be part of the “building blocks” of a new healthcare policy for the future.