Need more government hospitals in the urban area

Government hospitals in major cities, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, are usually overcrowded, hospital beds are significantly occupied (state hospitals recorded ore than 70% Bed occupancy rate in 2019). Due to urbanization in Malaysia, 77% of population now are in the urban area, as a result, more households fall into urban poverty, they cannot afford to seek serious treatment in private hospitals, government hospitals have to play a significant role as a safety net for these people. However, according to the National Health Morbidity Survey 2015, only 38% correspondents were satisfied with the waiting time to see doctor in public hospitals, while 21% said it was either poor or very poor. Given also that in the past 10 years (2009-2019), the hospital admission and outpatient numbers have grown 15% (or in real numbers, about 600 thousands and 5 million, respectively), there is a great need to increase the capacity to serve the populated areas such as the Klang Valley, Johor Bahru and Penang.