The 1st clinic doctor convicted under the PHFSA (II)
posted in - Nation, - Palmdoc |ub88 has posted an appeal in the MMR Forums here
At 2 pm today,I was at Kajang Prison to visit an old comrade in arms, Dr.Basmullah Yusuf who has been sentenced to 3 months prison for unable to pay the RM120,000 fine imposed onto him for failing to register his clinic under the new Private Health Act.Dr.Basmullah is a caring dr who charges minimum fees for his services especially when serving his poor pts.With the paltry fees that he gets and having to fend 8 children of his own the good man now has to pay a hefty price.Words cannot describe my feelings when I saw him dressed in his prison clothes trying to put on a brave front for the sake of his tearful wife and children.A good kind hearted dr is now being treated like a common criminal.After seeing the case first hand and on the advice of a lawyer in order to get him out he has to pay the absurd fine and appeal later.The doctors who were there together with me were Drs Khalid,Wan Julia,Ikram,Suib,Jaafar and Rozita has pledged some funds to get the ball rolling.
The relevant contact numbers are in the post.
It is a sad sad day indeed to see the authorities pick on a legitimate licensed medical practitioner and jail him on a technicality - for not registering his clinic (which was going to be sold anyway)
When you have lots of illegal and unlicensed “doctors” running around this country harming patients e.g. illegal Taiwanese “surgeons” who in this report caused a young woman to lose her breasts, it is a crying shame that this has happened. I hear allegations that triads bring in these illegal surgeons and seem to get away with it as they have some “protection”.
On the contrary our local legitimate doctors seem only to get victimised by legislation and bureaucracy from our own authorities.
We do hope the authorities will come to their senses. Their heavy handed action in jailing Dr. Basmullah on a technicality will only alienate a large group of professionals and their network. With elections coming, I don’t think they want to do this.
Related MMR post:
The 1st clinic doctor convicted under the PHFSA
Last 5 posts by Palmdoc
- Doctors’ compulsory service may be reduced? - February 8th, 2010
- Condolences - February 8th, 2010
- Unrecorded leave for organ donors - February 8th, 2010
- Cancer can be prevented - February 3rd, 2010
- Beware of HOs - February 2nd, 2010
