KUALA LUMPUR: The government today launched Agenda Nasional Malaysia Sihat (ANMS), a long-term plan to guide the nation towards making healthy living a culture as it steers out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the agenda would include efforts to prepare the Malaysian Family as the country transitions into the endemic phase.
He said the Health Ministry would be ANMS' main driver, with direct participation of the Housing and Local Government Ministry and cooperation of other ministries.
"ANMS is aimed at making healthy living and sustainable environment a culture, which supports the health wellbeing of the Malaysian Family.
"In making ANMS a success, the government is taking the Whole of Nation approach by forging close cooperation with all quarters as strategic partners," he said in a pre-recorded speech to launch ANMS, aired on the Selamat Pagi Malaysia programme on TV1 today.
Ismail Sabri also expressed appreciation to Malaysians who had showcased perseverance in playing their respective roles in rehabilitating the country that was hit by Covid-19 in true spirit of togetherness as the Malaysian Family.
He said the government was responsible in drawing up the strategies and initiatives under ANMS, while the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGO) would be the movers for the efforts.
The Malaysian Family, he said, would be directly involved in all the initiatives.
He said ANMS would be implemented for 10 years from this year, based on four thrusts, namely, enhancing promotion of healthy living, enhancing health services, empowering personal health and improving environmental cleanliness.
He said the government would ensure sufficient allocation for the success of ANMS and that the initiatives would benefit the Malaysian Family.
"I would like to stress that ANMS belongs to the Malaysian Family and for the wellbeing of the Malaysian Family."
He also expressed hope that the people would support and extend their cooperation to make ANMS a success.
Ismail Sabri said ANMS was also given emphasis in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), especially in enhancing the healthcare delivery service.
Among the strategies that would be implemented in the 12MP related to health wellbeing were improving health literacy and awareness on the health of Malaysians.
He said the government was drawing up the National Health Literacy Policy, which would see healthcare awareness programmes carried out on various platforms at all levels by optimising facilities at its agencies.
He said there will be community health agents, or MyCHAMPION, who will carry out a development programme to enhance health literacy among the people, especially in wellness education and promotion.
"With a high level of health literacy, the Malaysian Family will get health information, make healthy living a culture, conduct personal health monitoring as preventive steps against illnesses and take care of their health to avoid complications.
"The Malaysian Family will also be able to benefit from health services in making health-related decisions and practise a healthy lifestyle, and at the same time maintain good health," he said.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who appeared on the morning TV slot, said the ministry, as the main driver for ANMS, could not work in silo and needed cooperation from all parties, including the government agencies in carrying out the programmes.
He said several national indexes would be used to gauge the effectiveness of the initiatives, as well as the seven indicators in monitoring the implementation of ANMS.
These are people's health literacy, health lifestyle culture, disease prevalence, making new norm and SOP compliance a culture; vaccination, quality of life and national cleanliness level.
