PUTRAJAYA, April 7 — Malaysia is committed to achieving ‘Health For All’ by implementing policies to continually improve the performance of the health system and achieve full attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), said Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
In a statement released in conjunction with World Health Day today, she said this can be accomplished only through strong political commitment and multi-sectoral effort.
“The pandemic reinforced just how fundamental provision of healthcare is in ensuring that our population is safe and healthy, regardless of citizenship or any other factor.
“Over the last few decades, much progress has been achieved in public health, and we have witnessed even closer collaboration between the government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as we all work towards the goal of ensuring that all people have equal access to health,” she said.
Malaysia has tremendously improved numerous health outcomes since its independence and the rates of many vaccine-preventable diseases have dropped significantly because of effective vaccination programmes.
Malaysia also continues to make progress within sustainable development goal 3, or SDG 3, “Good Health and Well-Being”, particularly with very high child immunisation coverage for diseases under the National Immunisation Programme and improvements in the adolescent birth rate, maternal mortality and under-five mortality.
WHO Representative to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Singapore Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe, in the same statement, said Malaysia has made remarkable progress in improving national health outcomes, not the least of which is the achievement of effective universal health coverage in the 1980s.
“It could not have been accomplished and continued without the perseverance and dedication of Malaysia’s health workforce, the leadership of the government and policy makers, and strong collaboration with national and international partners,” he added.
World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on April 7, which also marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948.
