'More people falling sick this year' - Health Ministry

He said from January to May this year, there was an increase of eight percent in the number of patients visiting the ministry's health clinics, as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

"This increase accounts for more than three million additional patients visiting the public health clinics. Similarly, nearly 45,000 additional hospital admissions were seen in hospitals from January to June this year as compared to the corresponding period in 2015.

"This greater demand for our services has led to more complex challenges in managing our existing resources," he said in a statement today.

Therefore, Dr Noor Hisham said in ensuring that crucial health services were not disrupted, the ministry was evaluating the extent of its financial shortcomings, and optimising and reallocating its limited resources to wherever it was needed the most.

"This move is to ensure that the ministry laboratories will continue to perform crucial diagnostic investigations. The Health Ministry remains committed in providing health services to the people at all of our health facilities.

"Let us translate these challenges into opportunities for us to improve the way we do things...for it to be better, more efficient and effective, avoid unnecessary duplication and cut wastage towards achieving better outcomes," he said.

Providing good health services with limited resources remained one of the biggest challenge of any healthcare system in the world, especially when the demand for the health service increased, he added.