NEWS: Destigmatising post-retirement care

The Edge TV

At the recent The Edge Retirement Reimagined Forum 2023, former MOH DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and SJMC’s Bryan Lin talked about destigmatising and changing mindsets about aged care.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:11 We learned a lot from this pandemic COVID-19.

00:14 When we come in as one,

00:15 the whole government and the whole society came in together,

00:19 working in partnership at every ministry, at every organisation,

00:24 and the private sector, public sector comes together as one.

00:27 I think that is the formula, that is the guiding principle,

00:30 a lesson learned from the pandemic,

00:33 and we need to leverage on this.

00:35 And looking into this principle,

00:38 how can we address now retirement holistically,

00:42 not only from a financial perspective,

00:45 but also a bigger picture of how we can retire.

00:50 At the end of the day, we want a healthcare centre to have a quality in place,

00:55 not the healthcare centre, once upon a time, nursing home,

00:58 you know, we have this impression, poorly managed, etc.

01:02 That's why the public in Malaysia,

01:05 they think that if you send your parents to the nursing home,

01:08 this is a taboo, that means you are not a good son or even a daughter to your parents,

01:16 because you are actually not responsible.

01:22 So we need to change that mindset,

01:24 to make sure that the care centre is one everybody wants to go to.

01:29 Private healthcare services is costly,

01:33 and aged care, either you are an independent living unit,

01:37 assisted living unit, nursing care,

01:39 I think it is not a pure property play.

01:44 It involves the software,

01:50 and it involves the nursing care,

01:53 it involves the doctor, the allied health support,

01:56 it involves some investment in some infrastructure.

02:01 I think the way forward is that,

02:03 one, we have to learn what we have learned from COVID,

02:07 during the pandemic.

02:08 Kita jaga kita, a phrase that Tan Swee really emphasised.

02:13 We have to look after ourselves and look after one another.

02:16 We have to look at self-care.

02:19 Self-care is taking ownership of our health,

02:22 and investing into our health.

02:24 This morning we heard about active management of investment into financial returns,

02:31 but we also have to look at self-care as a way to invest into our future,

02:36 to mitigate the cost of healthcare,

02:38 that will be a burden for us as we age.

02:41 And I think equally important is the cost of $5,000 or $8,000

02:46 for some of these retirement home or villages.

02:49 I think it is prohibitive,

02:52 but I think the reason is that way is because of the investment that's required,

02:58 the infrastructure, the construction cost, the material cost,

03:02 as well as the inflation that is associated with it.

03:05 And honestly, the way we move forward, look at it,

03:11 got to require a paradigm shift.

03:14 At least I can share with you what we believe in our hospital at HJMC.

03:20 We are looking at uberising healthcare.

03:23 Our focus is to bring and change hospital to homes,

03:33 healthcare to health,

03:36 and patient to people.

03:38 [Music]

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