More private medical facilities needed to support S’wak’s foreign worker, senior citizen health programmes

Wee (seventh left), representing Dr Sim, and others at the SPMPS 52nd Anniversary Dinner in a hotel in Kuching on July 11, 2026.

By Doreen Ling

KUCHING, July 13: More private healthcare facilities have been urged to register as panel providers under the Sarawak Foreigners Health Information System (Safhis), with only 166 of the State’s approximately 400 private medical facilities currently enrolled.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Public Health, Housing, and Local Government Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian also called for more general practitioner (GP) clinics to participate so that health screening services become more accessible, while also supporting better compliance with foreign worker health screening requirements and helping address the issue of illegal foreign workers in Sarawak.

“The Sarawak Foreign Worker Medical Examination and Health Screening Project present an important opportunity for private doctors in Sarawak by creating sustainable growth for private medical practice.

“The establishment of Koperasi Doktor Sarawak under the SPMPS effort will further strengthen this initiative by fostering collaboration, creating business opportunities, and providing a shared platform to enhance community healthcare services,” he said at the Society of Private Medical Practitioners Sarawak (SPMPS) 52nd Anniversary Dinner in a hotel here on Saturday (July 11), where his text speech was read by Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng.

At the same time, Dr Sim also called for more private clinics to participate as panel clinics in the Senior Citizen Health Benefit (SCHB) programme, as less than half of the private medical clinics in Sarawak are currently participating as panel clinics.

“Greater efforts should be made to enable more private clinics to join the programme so that senior citizens can enjoy better accessibility to healthcare services throughout Sarawak,” he said.

Dr Sim added that healthcare providers in Sarawak should continue to innovate in delivering more efficient, accessible, and patient-centred healthcare, particularly for rural communities through stronger public-private partnerships and greater utilisation of existing private healthcare facilities.

At the same time, he also called on healthcare providers in Sarawak to embrace digital transformation by adopting electronic medical records, telemedicine, secure data sharing, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to improve healthcare delivery, efficiency, and patient outcomes.

Also present were Dr Liew Shan Fap, president of SPMPS; Dato Dr Kalwinder Singh Khaira, immediate past president of Malaysian Medical Association (MMA); Dr Ong Eng-Joe, chairman of MMA Sarawak; Prof Dr Ahmad Hata Rasit, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas); and Prof Dr Asri Said, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Unimas. — DayakDaily