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Healthcare services were predominantly found in urban areas.

Each of the main states of the country had a State hospital, which was run by medical officers, paramedics and nurses; specialist care was insufficient.

Rural healthcare services were practically non-existent.

Members of the rural population hence mainly depended on traditional healers, Chinese medicine and traditional midwives for their health needs.

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The Malaysian government embarked on an initiative to enhance the health status of its rural population- First Malaysia Plan in 1966

The benefits of these improvements shall be accessible to all members of the population regardless of income status

Healthcare system in the rural areas was established along with the development of infrastructure such as roads, water supply and electricity in these underdeveloped areas.

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Primary and secondary health care were delivered via a three-tier system, with tertiary healthcare being confined to State hospitals.

This three-tier system, demonstrated in Figure 1, consisted of a Main Health Centre, a Health Sub Centre and a Midwives Clinic.

The Main Health Centre was run mainly by medical officers, nurses, midwives, dentists, medical assistants and a public health team, catered for 50,000 populations and was in charge of 4 health sub-centres which consisted of a team of medical officers, nurses and midwives, catering for 10,000 populations.

Each health sub-centre was in charge of 5 Midwives’ Clinic which cared for 2,000 populations.

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A network of health clinics run by paramedics and midwives were set up in East Malaysia to cater for the scattered rural populations.

As depicted in Figure 2, the network was divided into 3 zones: immediate operational area (within 4.8 km to the health clinic), extended operational area (within 12 km to the health clinic) and outside extended operational area.

Those residing within the immediate operational zone were expected to come directly to the health centres.

Those in the extended operational zones were attended to by mobile village health teams, consisting of medical officers and nurses, using boats.

The Flying Doctor Service (FDS) was established in 1973 for those situated outside the extended operational zone. (The FDS consists of a doctor, medical assistant and 2 community nurses who provide medical services to villages once a month using helicopters.)

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Considering the infrequency of the visits, a system of village health promoters came into play.

Two volunteers from each village are trained in first aid and basic health services. They are then sent back to their respective villages with first aid kits and commonly used medications to provide and promote healthcare to the villagers under their care.

This system has shown outstanding results as by the end of 2000.

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National Adolescent Health Policy has been established.

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Primary Services have been introduced with Electronic Medical Records System, Teleprimary Care (TPC). This is a form of enterprise system that makes it possible to share the clinical records of patients in the health clinic with the referred hospitals.

As a start, three states are involved, namely Johor, Sarawak, and Perlis.

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“REAP or Reviewed Approach In Primary Health Care” has been introduced.

This method is the result of the need to control a variety of programs that are introduced in health clinics, starting from life cycle methods such as adolescents, adults, senior citizens and other basic needs with a variety of prevention program (cancer, hypertension, diabetes, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, sexual-related disease, etc).

This method showed that through a variety of programs, activities and processes of work are combined together to make it a powerful effort for handling patients holistically at the individual level.

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Health Clinic Facilities is introduced with the additional clinics named as 1 Malaysia Clinic (K1M), 1 Malaysia Mobile Family Centre Clinic, 1 Malaysia Boat Clinic as the extension to the Health Clinic, Maternal and Child Health Clinic, Village Clinic.

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Considering accessibility of the public to primary health care services, all of which is in line with the Tenth Malaysian Plan

To further improve the quality and accessibility of health care services delivered to members of rural communities

The training nurses in the holistic management of chronic conditions (i.e. Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus) will greatly alleviate some of the burdens currently weighing on the health care system, and most importantly, it will help establish equal and equitable delivery of healthcare services.

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Health Facilities were expanded to 2 new categories under the Government Transformation which are Rural Transformation Program (RTC) and Urban Transformation Program (UTC), where RTC Clinic and UTC Clinic were built.

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The "Komuniti Sihat Perkasa Negara" (KOSPEN) program is an initiative initiated by the Honorable Minister of Health Malaysia

The implementation is based on volunteers (GSiM) from the community to act as an agent to mobilize society towards healthy lifestyles and prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Malaysia

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Health ministry announced 1 Malaysia Clinic (K1M) will be rebranded as a Community Clinic.

To differentiate the functions between Community Clinics and Village Clinics that have focusing on maternal and child health services.

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The government plans to build Community Health Centers throughout the country - will be expanded nationwide

To enable the community to have access healthy living practices more easier and cheaper.

Involve the consultation sessions and exercise sessions with gym equipment for the people that suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

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Malaysia in 2021 is the year of the vaccine.

February 26, 2021: Malaysia begins its national immunization program with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin receiving its first injection. The launch of the vaccination as well as the details related to the vaccine are explained in the newly released COVID-19 National Immunization Program handbook.

COVID-19 vaccination is voluntary and will be provided free of charge to
all those living in Malaysia (citizens and not a citizen).

Vaccination will consist of three phases for a period of 12-18 months starting from the end of February, with health workers and other important front lines, followed by a population of vulnerable elderly, patients with chronic diseases, and people with disabilities.

The rest of the population aged 18 and above will receive the vaccine from May this year. Residents in the COVID red zone area will also be given priority.

Malaysia chooses to obtain various vaccines either through direct purchase or through the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX Initiative.

So far, Malaysia has obtained a vaccine to protect about 80 percent of the population. About half of the population will be vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, about 20 percent with AstraZeneca and Sinovac, and the rest will be divided equally between CanSinoBIO and Sputnik V.

The approach taken by the Government is ensure that at least 80% of the Malaysian adult population receives the vaccine by February 2022 to reduce infections, hospitalized and death.