Reports by MARTIN CARVALHO, RAHIMY RAHIM and TARRENCE TAN

       A TOTAL of RM73.5mil was spent from January to Sept 30 this year to outsource non-Covid-19 cases from government health facilities to private hospitals nationwide, says the Health Ministry.

       In a written reply on Tuesday, it said 38 public hospitals and 71 private hospitals were involved in outsourcing services, of which 8,338 surgeries and medical procedures were successfully performed at a cost of RM73.5mil.

       “Backlog cases were reduced through the outsourcing initiative, although the number of private hospital facilities and expertise in some states is limited,” it said in a written reply to Kelvin Yii (PH-Bandar Kuching).

       Yii had asked the government how much was spent in outsourcing non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals and how many backlog cases were there at the moment.

       The ministry said up to Sept 30 this year, there wer 59,049 backlogs for surgical-based cases and non-Covid-19 medical-based procedures at its facilities nationwide.

       “This situation also happened in many countries in the world, where the spread of Covid-19 has caused emphasis to be placed on Covid-19 patients, causing the treatment of non-Covid-19 cases to be affected.”

       The ministry said it is currently studying ways to reduce backlog cases, among them adding more private hospitals in its outsourcing programme, as well as the gradual setting up of “repurposed operating theatres” at public hospitals.