CAP refers to the recently concluded OIC Health Ministers Conference in Kuala Lumpur. At this conference, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi expressed the need for Muslim countries to work together to improve the quality of their public health which is in a sorry state.

The prime minister's views are timely. The Ministry of Health officials are presently involved in the drafting of a National Health Policy for the country. This is a critical moment for shaping the direction of the nation's health.

CAP calls for a primary focus on public health measures that are aimed at safeguarding and improving the health of the public, or the nation, as a whole. For this purpose, addressing the determinants of health - be they social, political, environmental or lifestyle - become increasingly important. Issues such as health tourism should not be part of a national health policy.

It may be useful to note this extract from Sweden's new Public Health Policy document which states: 'An important strategic crossroads has been reached with the new public health policy. Where objectives had previously been based on diseases or health problems, health determinants were now chosen instead. Health determinants are factors in society or in our living conditions that contribute to good or bad health.

'The benefit of using determinants as a basis is that the objectives will then be accessible for political decisions and can be influenced by certain types of societal measures. If we set objectives in terms of disease, e.g. to reduce the number of heart attacks, they do not provide any guidance as to what measures may be effective in achieving them. It is impossible to say, for example, whether a reduction in the number of heart attacks is due to improved public health or to other reasons.'

The Swedish document goes on to say: 'Using health determinants as a basis means the vast majority of public health work must take place outside the medical care service. Most of the factors that impact health are to be found outside the spheres of medical competence and knowledge'.

Our National Health Policy would need to focus on, among others, issues such as proper housing and sanitation, clean water and air, employment, a healthier working life, favourable conditions during childhood and adolescence, effective protection against communicable diseases, conditions that favour sufficient physical activity for all age groups, healthy eating habits, safe food, and also the reduction in the use of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

The writer is president, Consumers Association of Penang.