MARCH 4 — Dear YB Sim,
I watched with interest — and no small measure of disappointment — your remarks in Parliament questioning why private hospitals are “excessively” charging for gloves and masks.
It is an easy talking point, one that plays well to the gallery, but it reduces a complex, capital-intensive, and highly regulated industry to the price of a disposable item.
If you are truly concerned about hospital charges, let me ask: What about everything else?
What about nurses, the backbone of healthcare? When there weren’t enough, we trained them.
When other countries offer better pay, we raise salaries to stop the brain drain. No subsidies, no financial incentives — just hospitals absorbing the cost of keeping Malaysian nurses in Malaysia.
The same nurses who work exhausting shifts, standing between patients and death.
Who speaks of that?
What about electricity, which we cannot switch off? A factory, an office, even a Parliament chamber can power down when not in use.
A hospital cannot. ICU monitors, ventilators, temperature-controlled storage for life-saving medications — all must remain powered 24/7, whether or not a single patient occupies the ward.
When utility tariffs increase, do hospitals get a discount? No. We pay the full price.
And yet, we are expected to absorb those costs without question.
What about the facilities we are required to maintain, whether utilised or not? Negative pressure rooms, standby ICUs, emergency surgical suites — these are not luxuries.
They are requirements, mandated to be ready at all times, even if they remain empty.
And what about the life-saving drugs we must keep in stock — many of which expire and must be discarded because, thankfully, they weren’t needed?
Who bears the cost of preparedness?
What about room charges? A hospital room costs less than many hotel suites, despite being fitted with life-saving equipment, medical-grade sanitation, and round-the-clock professional care.
The difference? A hospital room isn’t just a space to sleep. It is a place where the sick recover, where complications are managed, where lives are saved.
Even the mattresses on our hospital beds are medical-grade, designed to prevent pressure sores and injuries for immobilised patients — a far cry from the ordinary mattresses in a hotel room.
Yet, while hotels charge significantly more for a night’s stay, it is hospital pricing that gets scrutinised.
What about the reality that despite high medical consumable costs, our margins remain razor-thin?
The inefficiencies we shoulder are not reflected in patient bills because, if they were, healthcare would become unaffordable.
But no one talks about that.
What about the fact that we have engaged the government repeatedly on these issues, presenting facts, figures, and realities that any responsible policymaker should acknowledge?
And yet, the same tired narrative persists — one that reduces an entire industry’s struggles into a simplistic, politically convenient soundbite.
What about the real issue, YB?
You fixate on the price of gloves while ignoring the bigger picture — that private hospitals are subsidising systemic inefficiencies while being vilified for doing so.
Perhaps we can reduce the cost of gloves and masks — but shall we start charging for everything else?
Every hour a nurse spends monitoring a patient. Every stockpiled drug that expires. Every facility that remains on standby. Every watt of electricity that keeps a ventilator running.
If we itemised the true cost of care, would Malaysians still find the charges excessive?
Or would they finally realise that private hospitals have been absorbing what the system refuses to acknowledge?
Because, YB, if we continue to be vilified, pressured, and reduced to simplistic soundbites, private hospitals will reach a point where they can no longer operate.
And when that happens, the problem will not be the price of a glove.
It will be that there are no more hands left to wear them.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
