NLD MP welcomes minister's pledge to open heart centres, add hospitals, cut fees

 

He was replying to a question from MP Myat Nyana Soe who asked if centres with heart specialists would be set up, and noted that patients had to leave the country for treatment of heart ailments because they cannot receive it here.

Than Aung also said his ministry was striving to reduce fees charged to patients at government hospitals across the country, including Yangon General Hospital and that its efforts had been successful “to a certain degree”. These efforts will continue, he said, adding that more hospitals would be opened.

Plans are under way to open 500-bed hospitals in regions and states, and 100-bed hospitals at the district level nationwide, he explained.

Myat Nyana Soe, an MP from the National League for Democracy who represents constituency 4 in Yangon, praised the minister’s response, saying his predecessor had been vague or evasive when questioned in Parliament.

“It is good news that the health ministry is reducing patients’ expenditures. This should be done Yangon as well as in the whole country,” he said “Patients should not need to pay money for register books and blood tests in the Yangon General Hospital,” the MP said.

Most Myanmar doctors are working as consultants in foreign countries, he added. The healthcare system may improve when they return to help their country, but this has yet to happen and Myanmar’s private hospitals are losing potential earnings as patients go to Thailand and Singapore to receive treatments, Myat Nyana Soe said. Heart patients have to go abroad because the country has no heart centres, he said.

He also called for private hospitals to add teaching facilities. “To be frank, private hospitals are working only for money and have little investment. They should also turn out qualified staff,” the MP said.