THE National Heart Institute (IJN) plans to expand its services outside of Kuala Lumpur through selected hospitals in other cities.

These would primarily be cities or areas where heart-related health facilities are lacking and such a move would benefit patients in those localities who currently have to travel to Kuala Lumpur for treatment.

Newly-appointed group chief executive officer of IJN Holdings and CEO of IJN Sdn Bhd, Professor Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Ezani Md Taib says the set-up would take place at already running hospitals in selected areas outside the Klang Valley, with IJN investing resources in both facilities and manpower to run these “mini IJN” services.

This would help ease the patient load at IJN and generally ensure more efficient administration of cardiac care, says Dr Mohamed Ezani.

“Currently, the biggest patient pool at IJN is from the central zone, which includes southern Perak, the Klang Valley, northern Negeri Sembilan and the west of Pahang.”

Under Dr Mohamed Ezani’s tenure, IJN is set to explore new technologies in cardiac treatment and strengthen its role as a regional hub for heart and lung transplants and expand educational partnerships to train the next generation of specialists.

“The focus will be on embracing new technologies, fostering international collaborations and ensuring that clinical excellence translates into better outcomes for patients,” he says.

Currently, 67.8 per cent of patients at IJN are Ministry of Health (MOH) patients or federal government funded patients, while non-MOH patients (from state governments, statutory bodies etc) make up 16.9 per cent, private patients account for 14.9 per cent and foreign patients make up 0.4 per cent.

Dr Mohamed Ezani says in today’s healthcare landscape, what consumers want are reasonable charges with safe practices and good results or outcomes.