About the People’s Health Forum

The People’s Health Forum is a space created in April 2019 by several NGOs and individuals who are committed to the principle of Healthcare as a Human Right, i.e. universal healthcare as an entitlement based not on the ability to pay, but on the basis of need.

Reforms in the organization and financing of healthcare (to cope with key health challenges in Malaysia), affordable access to medicines, health equity along multiple dimensions, are among the issues that have brought members of the PHF together.

Convening Members

  • Parti Sosialis Malaysia – Dr. Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj
  • Third World Network – Ms. Chee Yoke Ling
  • Health Equity Initiatives & Monash University Malaysia – Dr. Sharuna Verghis
  • Citizens’ Health Initiative – Dr. Chan Chee Khoon, Dr. Mary Cardosa, Dr. Chee Heng Leng
  • Agora Society Malaysia – Dr. Lim Chee Han

The Roundtables (RTs)

The People’s Health Forum has planned a series of four roundtables to pool information and analyses on public-private partnerships, health care financing, human capital for health, and migrant healthcare.

The objective of the Roundtables is to use the information and perspectives gathered to prepare a Memorandum that will be submitted to the government for policy formulation. The Memorandum will also be used to engage in public education.

In organizing these Roundtables, PHF has also been engaging in partnership building. The first two Roundtables were organized in partnership with the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Universiti Malaya, and the third with the Socioeconomic Committee of the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.  Roundtable 4 is being organized in collaboration with the Bar Council Migrants, Refugees and Immigration Affairs Committee and the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medical and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia.

The details of the first three Roundtables are as below:

  1. Roundtable 1 – ‘How the Private Sector Can Be Leveraged to Provide Healthcare to the B40 and M40?’, held on 12th June 2019 in Universiti Malaya;
  2. Roundtable 2 – ‘Sustainable Healthcare Financing in Malaysia’ held on 07th August 2019 in Universiti Malaya;
  3. Roundtable 3 – ‘Human Capital for Health in Malaysia’ held on 18th September 2019 in the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

The first roundtable focused on examining public–private partnerships in the healthcare sector in order to explore the ways in which such partnerships can be leveraged for the B40 and M40 while highlighting the importance of a robust public health system as the core for providing access to universl health care. The second roundtable, titled “Sustainable Healthcare Financing in Malaysia”, sought to increase the understanding of the complex issues that surround a healthcare financing system in providing universal health care for Malaysia’s citizens. The third roundtable, “Human Capital for Health in Malaysia”, examined the continuing outmigration of specialists from the public sector to the private sector, and the emerging issues with regard to medical education and the training of nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals.

The first three Roundtables brought together a range of participants including public policy makers, academics, doctors and other medical professionals, NGOs, patient groups, media, and the pharmaceutical industry.