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Introduction

In the recent presentation of the 2025 budget, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced the introduction of a new initiative called Rakan KKM (Full Paying Patients) program. The program aims to offer premium services within public hospitals and clinics with the hope of elevating Malaysia’s public healthcare system by benefiting patients, healthcare professionals, and the public healthcare system alike.

Rakan KKM seeks to combine elements of the public service and private sector such that patients can receive tailored medical attention, choose their specialists and receive a high degree of privacy when receiving several medical services. While the program is claimed to increase more revenue to be reinvested to the public health system, it also brings up issues on equity, resource mobilization and accessibility to the health system. This article explores how Rakan KKM operates, its purposes, and analyses its strengths and weaknesses.

Rakan KKM Key Benefits

According to Dr Dzekufly Ahmad, this initiative will bring advantages to Malaysia’s public healthcare system, primarily focusing on the retention of healthcare workers, revenue reinvestment, and providing a reasonably priced services for middle income group. With the help of such model as premium economy patients can get individual approach, choose a doctor or hospital on their own, and have higher level of confidentiality for such services as outpatient, daycare or inpatient ones if it is an elective treatment.

The profits earned through Rakan KKM services will be ploughed back into the public sector healthcare system to ensure the overall strength and sustainability of healthcare services are maintained. This benefits the Malaysian public as a whole in addition to the healthcare facilities’ infrastructure and equipment.

In addition, it has been created to provide better incomes and working conditions to the health care personnel to reduce staff turnover in the public health facility. This eliminates the brain drain thus putting the quality experienced workforce in the public health system (The Edge Malaysia, 2024).

Addressing Concerns with Rakan KKM

Despite the government’s assurances about the benefits of the Rakan KKM program, possible issues must be addressed to guarantee resource management and fair access. One major concern that needs attention is the programme might cause the risk of creating an equitable healthcare system. Azrul Mohd Khalib, CEO of the Galen Centre for Social Health and Policy, pointed out equity concerns with the Rakan KKM (FPP) initiative. He stressed that all income groups, including the T15, should have fair access to public healthcare funded by their taxes (CodeBlue, 2024). Clear policies and frequent audits are required to lessen this and make sure the services offered do not jeopardize regular patients’ access and to maintain fair resource distribution to all the taxpayers.

Another possible issue that needs to be tackled is the prioritization of the full paying patients over the regular patients. This could be avoided by implementing safeguards such as stringent scheduling guidelines and resources specifically allocated for FPP services. In order to prevent the disproportionate diversion of public healthcare resources, it is also critical to strike a balance in the distribution of resources between FPP and the general public.

Although it has been mentioned that healthcare workers will only attend to FPP patients after they have cared for public healthcare patients, there is still the perception that FPP patients will receive better care. This perception can undermine trust in the equity of the system and must be addressed to ensure that all patients feel valued and receive high-quality care. This view may undermine trust in the system’s equity and must be addressed to guarantee that all patients feel valued and receive superior care.

Conclusion

By introducing premium services, the Rakan KKM (FPP) initiative is an important attempt to improve Malaysia’s public healthcare system. While the program promises benefits such as improved healthcare worker retention, better working conditions, and additional revenue for reinvestment, it is crucial to address potential equity concerns. Clear guidelines, regular audits, and balanced resource allocation are essential to ensure that FPP services do not compromise access for non-paying patients and maintain trust in the system’s fairness.

At Saujana Health, we believe that the Rakan KKM (FPP) program can accomplish its objectives of improving public healthcare. This can be achieved by offering all stakeholders full benefits and cultivating a sense of value and high-quality care for each patient by tackling these problems head-on.

Reference

1. CodeBlue. (2024, October 24). Rakan KKM Promises Specialists ‘Similar’ Income To Private Hospitals. CodeBlue: Health Is a Human Right. https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2024/10/rakan-kkm-promises-specialists-similar-income-to-private-hospitals/#:~:text=What%20Is%20Rakan%20KKM%3F,below%20those%20of%20private%20hospitals.
2. The Edge Malaysia. (2024, October 21). My Say: Rakan KKM: Raising the ceiling and the floor [Online post]. https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/730876