KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 ― After a heated debate, the Supply Bill 2021 for the Ministry of Health (MoH), was passed with a majority voice vote at Dewan Rakyat today.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali in winding up the debate initially came under a barrage of questions by several members of Parliament from both the government and Opposition blocs who wanted him to reply to points raised during the debate.

Before this, the absence of Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba was also questioned as the debate on the ministry was deemed important when the nation is facing the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Dr Noor Azmi sternly explained that he was also eligible to answer on behalf of the ministry and the absence of the minister should not be questioned.

As he began his winding up speech, several members intervened to demand answers from him on the reduction of the ministry’s operating expenditure as there were confusions and allegations that there was a reduction in expenditure next year.

Dr Noor Azmi said there was a restructuring in the operating expenditure under Budget 2021 for the Ministry of Health but it did not involve a cut in allocation, on the contrary, it was a strategy to improve expenditure effectiveness efficiency while reducing bureaucracy especially those involving payment.

"On expenditure, some members are confused on how some items were left zero while some claimed it is underfunded. I wish to stress that the government has allocated RM31.94 billion in Budget 2021 compared to RM30.6 billion the year before which is an increase of 4.38 per cent or RM1.34 billion,” he said.

He said the restructuring was also to avoid the issue of late payment apart from enabling the ministry to control and monitor the allocation more comprehensively and effectively.

He added it was also to assist in optimising its financial resources through existing procurement method to help the government save funds on the overall.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Azmi said MoH has been developing an electronic medical record system (EMR) at health facilities throughout the country since 6MP (Sixth Malaysia Plan) and to date 37 out of the 146 hospitals, 96 out of 1,090 health clinics and 31 of the 362 dental clinics nationwide are equipped with EMR.

On the dengue fever situation, he said from January to Dec 6 this year, there were 87, 279 cases reported compared to 121, 983 for the same period last year which was a 28.4 per cent reduction.

For the same period, there were 141 dengue deaths recorded compared to 171 fatalities for the same period last year, a decrease of 30 deaths, he said. ― Bernama