Health & Environment

In common with governments around the world, issues such as rising costs, demographic shifts, technological advances in care and delivering equitable health care to both rural and urban populations are posing challenges to Sarawak’s health authorities. Of the state’s inhabitants, 44% were considered rural in 2013. Yet it has only one major public hospital, Sarawak General, located in the capital Kuching. It is thus important for authorities to devise alternative modes for delivering care. Within the health care sector, the need to address the persistent urban-rural divide and create incentives to attract and retain qualified medical practitioners is likely to be prioritised. As costs rise, the requirement for health care insurance for some workers should energise the state’s insurance industry. There is also much promise for bioprospectors to discover new medical compounds in Sarawak’s rainforests, which could act as a key accelerator for the state’s biomedical economy.