A System Dynamics Analysis of Malaysian Healthcare Resources

Malaysian healthcare landscape is changing rapidly and facing drastic transformation in relation to drivers of change in the healthcare system. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of healthcare resources interventions on accessibility and affordability of healthcare. The Malaysian Healthcare Resources Model (MHRM) is developed to provide a wide-ranging view of the complex interactions between demand and supply of healthcare resources and provide potential future scenarios of healthcare provision to achieve the country's target. The scenario analysis' findings suggest that increasing healthcare resources through medical workforce supply and productivity of hospital beds (bed turnover ratio) will assist to achieve healthcare accessibility and this in turn will improve the quality of healthcare along with moderate increase in budget allocation to public healthcare. Meanwhile, reducing the proportion of out-of-pocket expenditure is more valuable than having higher income in fostering healthcare affordability among Malaysians.