Social media posts misleadingly claim Malaysian public hospitals scrapped free dialysis treatment
- Published on November 6, 2024 at 08:32
- Updated on November 6, 2024 at 09:23
- 3 min read
- By Raevathi SUPRAMANIAM, AFP Malaysia
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"Haemodialysis at government hospitals is no longer free. All patients are required to pay 13 ringgit per session. For those who are poor, that is 169 ringgit ($38.9) per month, which is a lot of money," read part of a Malay-language Facebook post on October 13, 2024.
The accompanying image shows a receipt issued by a government hospital for dialysis sessions for September.
The cost includes a dialysis charge of 10 ringgit ($2.27), and a facility charge of 3 ringgit ($0.68), bringing the total to 13 ringgit per session. The receipt shows the patient received 13 sessions per month with the final cost being 169 ringgit.
The post went on to urge the government to "roll back the charges" and to avoid increasing costs in the future.
Similar posts about the purported "new" charges for dialysis also circulated on Facebook here, here and here, as well as on WhatsApp.
But keyword searches on Google led to a post by Malaysia's Health Minister, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, on his verified Facebook page that called the claims "untrue" (archived link).
"Outpatient care at Ministry of Health facilities remains at 1 ringgit, specialist care at 5 ringgit ($1.15) and haemodialysis treatment at 13 ringgit per session," he said in the Facebook post.
If a patient receives three sessions a week, the cost of dialysis is 169 ringgit a month, the minister wrote, which corresponds to the cost shown on the receipt shared in the misleading post.
This set of charges has been in place since 2016, he added.
The same cost of treatment is also listed on the Ministry of Health's website (archived link).
The Malaysian government heavily subsidises healthcare in the country, allocating 45.3 billion ringgit ($10.29 billion) to it in its 2025 budget (archived link).
The public healthcare charges are listed in the Fee Act 1951, which divides the cost of treatments into three classes based on income (archived link).
Those in the lowest income Third Class only pay 10 ringgit for dialysis, excluding the 3 ringgit facility fee:
AFP has previously debunked a false claim related to a purported hike in consultation fees at government clinics.
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