Opinion : Budget 2026 Patients First - Clear, Accessible, Continuous, Safe

On the eve of Budget 2026, the Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) calls for a patient-first package that makes health care clearer, faster, safer, and fairer, whether at home, clinics, hospitals, or community pharmacies. Proposals translate RMK-13’s vision of inclusive, affordable, digitised services into practical, visible improvements: transparent prices, portable records, understandable medicine information, reliable essential treatments, and timely prevention. These reforms fit the broader budget focus on social protection and fiscal discipline. 

Funding & context: MOH’s allocation rose to RM45.3 billion in 2025 (from RM41.2 billion in 2024), still below the desired public health share of GDP. MPS urges at least RM55 billion for 2026, aligning with multi-year plans for stronger, patient-visible services. Total health spending remains around 4% of GDP; targeted increases can improve medicine security, digital continuity, and prevention without compromising fiscal consolidation. 

Price clarity & fair bills: Budget 2026 should fund a Price Transparency Enablement Grant (PTEG) for facilities to implement visible price lists and itemised billing, with e-receipts by default. If registration fees at public facilities are revised, MPS supports automatic B40 exemptions and ring-fencing to visible patient gains, shorter queues, better medicine availability, age-friendly upgrades with no cost-shifting to medicines. Patients should see and feel the improvement, not just read about it. 

Digital continuity: Patients shouldn’t have to repeat their medical histories at every gateway or worry their prescription will vanish between systems. A Digital Enablement Fund should connect clinics, hospitals, and community pharmacies to national health IT. Priorities include e-prescriptions via the National Electronic Prescription Exchange (EPES), unique patient identifiers, secure data-sharing, cybersecurity, and offline usability. SME support like Geran PMKS Madani should facilitate adoption. 

Understandable medicine info (e-labelling): Clear medicine information saves lives, MPS urges the Ministry of Health to lead a national elabelling rollout built on the NPRA Second-Edition Guideline (August 2025), with three patient critical design choices: multilingual support (Bahasa Melayu, English, Mandarin, Tamil, with phased inclusion of indigenous languages), accessibility (large-font PDFs, text-to-speech, dyslexia-aware layouts), and universal access (print-on-demand options in clinics, hospitals and community pharmacies, plus zero-rated data for official e-leaflet pages where feasible). Funding should cover patient education, provider training, and enabling tools. 

Medicine availability & resilience: “Stok habis” cannot be normal. We propose a Medicine Availability & Shortage Transparency (MAST) Fund to maintain targeted buffer stocks, stand up a public shortage dashboard with early warning indicators, and fund rapid response when signals flash red. Budget lines should support mandatory shortage reporting by marketing authorisation holders and wholesalers, agile procurement for substitutions, and clear patient communication when switches are clinically appropriate. Complement with ring-fenced MOH Pharmaceutical Services allocations for procurement, logistics, and digital stock management. A Community Pharmacy Emergency Response Reserve ensures access during crises. 

Prevention close to home: Prevention should meet people where they live and work. Budget 2026 should resource community-based screening, adherence support, AMR counselling, and cessation programs through pharmacies, with reimbursement pilots for pharmacy-led primary care. Expand MySARA RM100 subsidy and Pharmacist-Led Preventive Care Incentive (RM50 vouchers) nationwide and strengthen Ubat@Komuniti in Sabah and Sarawak. 

Antimicrobial stewardship & AMR: Scale AMS positions, surveillance, and training per Malaysian Action Plan on AMR 2022–2026, supporting One-Health and WHO GLASS commitments. 

Workforce & rural equity: Patients feel safety and timeliness when teams are properly staffed, trained and retained. Strengthening pharmacist training, advanced practice pathways, permanent posts, and tele-enabled services. Launch National Medication Review Service for older adults and multimorbidity. Expand last-mile delivery (e.g., MOH/MCMC drone pilot in Sabah) where safe and cost-effective.

Accountability & public visibility: Patients and policymakers alike should be able to see whether reforms are working. Implement a multi-cadre dashboard reporting price compliance, e-receipt adoption, e-prescription usage, e-labelling reach, shortage resolution, and prevention service uptake, urban vs rural.

Fiscally credible package: MPS proposes phased enablement funds with KPIs: PTEG rollout, routine e-prescriptions, multilingual e-labelling, shortage reporting, and community NCD and cessation services, visible, patient-centered, and aligned with RMK-13.

“Patients shouldn’t need to be system experts to get care. Budget 2026 must make prices visible, records portable, and medicine information understandable in every clinic, hospital, and community pharmacy while ensuring no one is left behind.”

The Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) is the national association for pharmacists formed on Nov 6, 1967 to promote and maintain the honor and interests of the profession in the country. Our motto is “Service Towards a Healthy Society.

Please note that the views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Vital Signs.