{"id":444539,"date":"2026-01-29T06:11:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444539\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:11:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:11:01","slug":"generic-medicines-and-project-monitoring-to-lower-healthcare-costs-says-dr-dzulkefly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444539\/","title":{"rendered":"Generic medicines and project monitoring to lower healthcare costs, says Dr Dzulkefly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BUTTERWORTH: The usage of generic medicines is a strategic move to help lower-income groups access affordable treatment without compromising safety or effectiveness, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.<\/p>\n<p>The Health Minister stated that generic drugs are bioequivalent to their original counterparts, ensuring the same efficacy while significantly reducing costs for patients.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the past two years, the ministry\u2019s generic-first policy has saved the government RM900mil, and we expect these savings to continue growing,&#8221; he said. Dr Dzulkefly urged the clinical community, including specialists and medical practitioners, to prioritise prescribing generic medicines to support national healthcare sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press conference following the official opening of the new Seberang Jaya Hospital building on Saturday (Jan 24), the Minister also addressed delays in Health Ministry projects.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that the ministry is working closely with the Public Works Department (JKR) to monitor &#8220;sick&#8221; or stalled projects through a development committee that meets every two to three months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We collaborate with JKR at both federal and state levels as they are the implementing agency, while the ministry acts as the client,&#8221; he said. Dr Dzulkefly highlighted that several hospital projects, including those in Putrajaya and Papar, had faced unacceptable delays of more than 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Waiting this long is a burden on the public. Contractors must fulfill their responsibility and complete projects within the stipulated timeframe,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The new RM371mil Seberang Jaya Hospital building, which was officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim earlier today, is part of the government&#8217;s broader effort to ensure healthcare remains high-quality and accessible to all Malaysians.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUTTERWORTH: The usage of generic medicines is a strategic move to help lower-income groups access affordable treatment without&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,230732,230726,230727,137,8034,27818,230729,230728,490,230731,230730,226938],"class_list":["post-444539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-butterworth","tag-dr-dzulkefly-ahmad","tag-generic-medicine","tag-health","tag-health-ministry","tag-healthcare-costs","tag-hospital-projects","tag-jkr","tag-medication","tag-papar-hospital","tag-putrajaya-hospital","tag-seberang-jaya-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}