Govt committed to ensuring ANMS a success - Tengku Zafrul

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said in fact ANMS would also be given emphasis in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), especially in improving the delivery of health care services.

"Through Budget 2022, the government will continue to cultivate a healthy culture in addition to agreeing to continue ANMS launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob last November.

"Among the strategies that will be carried out through the 12MP related to health well-being is to improve health literacy and awareness among Malaysian families," he said when officiating the NSCMH hemodialysis centre Kuala Pilah branch here today.

He said ANMS aims to make a culture of healthy living and environmental sustainability a new norm to support the well-being of the Malaysian Family.

On Nov 11 last year, Ismail Sabri when launching ANMS was reported to have said that ANMS was to prepare the Malaysian Family in facing and going through the endemic phase of COVID-19.

Earlier, Tengku Zafrul presented a donation of 20 units of wheelchairs for the benefit of patients at the NSCMH Hemodialysis Centre to ensure that it provides excellent services to the local community.

In the meantime, he said apart from offering a minimal treatment charge, the centre also helped hemodialysis patients by bearing the cost of treatment by providing subsidies according to category thus easing their financial burden.

"It is estimated that the current cost for each treatment is RM170 and each patient requires 13 treatments per month. This means that the cost per month is about RM2,200," he said.

He explained that according to data from the Malaysian Dialysis and Transplantation Registry, almost 50,000 patients undergo dialysis with most of them on hemodialysis while there are about 8,000 new dialysis patients a year.