The healthcare component in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) announced today was underwhelming despite the many lessons learned during the country's almost two-year struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic, said the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy.

"Considering what the country and people went through over the past 18 months, sacrifices made by thousands of frontline health and non-health essential workers, the many strengths and gaps identified, and the hard-won lessons from the Covid-19 response, the health component of the 12MP feels a bit underwhelming," said Galen Centre chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib (above).

Azrul added that he was surprised by yet another study being...