A local think tank has urged the Health Ministry to ensure that its plan to increase healthcare spending is accompanied by a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system.

According to the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), this was necessary to "ensure efficiency, effectiveness and to prevent wastage of allocation".

“Ideas applauds the increase in allocation for health and initiatives for increasing health coverage under the Pakatan Harapan government.

“However, Ideas is concerned that the allocation would not automatically translate into better quality healthcare and suggests including greater monitoring and evaluation to get better value from increased allocation,” it said in a statement today.

New Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad reportedly said that his ministry would be increasing spending on healthcare, targeting up to six or seven percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

As such, Ideas social policy analyst Wan Ya Shin said, increased government spending must be accompanied by a well-thought-out execution plan, "to ensure that it would not only result in an increase in facilities but also an improvement in the quality of healthcare".

Stating that individual choice and responsibility were at the core of any healthcare policy, Wan further recommended the national healthcare system adopt a "nudging" strategy to encourage patients to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Nudging refers to the philosophy or practice of incentivising healthier lifestyle habits such as by providing vouchers.

"The Skim Peduli Sihat is a health voucher scheme that strives towards broader health coverage and targets the lower income groups. It would provide the lower income groups with more choices and reduce the burden on public healthcare. This initiative would leverage on the private sector to enhance the coverage of primary healthcare.”

Ideas also applauded Harapan's pledge to focus on non-communicable diseases, mental health, women’s health, and palliative care, as it opined that no one should be left behind in accessing quality healthcare.

“The ministry should approach these issues with financial prudence and leverage on the participation of the private sector. In tackling the rise of non-communicable diseases, nudge (sic) could be used to encourage a healthy lifestyle and support people to make more informed choices.”