'1Malaysia' clinics have been set up with the urban poor in mind to provide a form of financed healthcare and to reduce the burden on overcrowded government clinics," said the Health Ministry's director general Ismail Merican.<br /><br />"Healthcare is becoming increasingly expensive and if the government does not act, there will come a time will come when the public can no longer afford it," he said.<br /><br />"There are a special group of people with special needs - the urban poor. So far we have been concentrating on the rural poor. We have rural clinics run by assistant medical officers and nurses.<br /><br />"They have been running for decades. And because of the strength of the rural healthcare system, Malaysia is often said to have among the best healthcare systems in the world.<br /><br />"The recently established '1Malaysia' clinics fill this need and they are equivalent to normal government clinics, which are manned by medical assistants (MAs)."<br /><br />Reporter: Aidila Razak & S Pathmawathy<br />Editor: Azreen Madzlan<br />Camera: Amir Abdullah
