Who will be the next Health Minister?
posted in - Nation, - Palmdoc |In the aftermath of GE-12, the BN will form the new Government based on it’s simple majority win. The new cabinet will be announced and there will be a new Health Minister. Who will it be?
It is anyone’s guess but of the medical doctors in the line up, I wonder if it could be Dr. Ng Yen Yen?
I think the new Health Minister has several pressing things to do, most importantly provide leadership and pull the MOH together. The new Minister needs to take a hard look at the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act and listen to the grouses of the medical profession who feel that this act is overly punitive and makes criminals out of doctors. Infringements of the act, simply by non-compliance, could lead to the jailing of a doctor, and indeed it has with Dr. Basmullah becoming the first victim. I would like to repeat Dranony’s call that The conviction and jailing of Dr Basmullah, shows the ugly side of Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (PHFSA1998)
Although we cannot condone intentional violation of the law, the punishment in this case far outweighs the violation.
Would a lesser fine, or simply ordering the clinic closed permanently, cautioning the doctor with more severe punishment if repeated, have sufficed? Since it was a first offence, and especially since there was a plea of guilt thus saving the court time and expense, leniency would have been expected.
It had been reported in the media and several blogs that the poor doctor had also been a volunteer and had aided disaster victims overseas, as a medical doctor.
Is this how we treat doctors who contribute to society and to humanity, and who bring honour to our country?
Without funds to start another new clinic, the poor doctor would have to look for employment upon release from jail. Would his status as a former convict, a doctor with a criminal record, hinder him sufficiently to effectively kill his career?”
Dear future Health Minister, by all means catch and jail the crooks who masquerade as doctors, those who intentionally harm patients with fraudulent treatments, those who sell tainted “medicine” and “herbs” which actually contain banned substances or controlled items under the Poisons act. We have yet to see these crooks jailed and we would like you to direct the MOH to get their priorities right. You need to seriously rethink the punishment the Government is meting out to legitimate doctors under this harsh Act which has made potential criminals out of doctors for simply not adhering to the myriad of requirements under the Act and Regulations 2006. Your predecessor had promised that the Act would be used primarily to weed out bogus doctors but we see that this is not the case.
The Ministry must sit down once again with the representatives of the medical profession and come to an amicable agreement on more reasonable amendments to the Act and Regulations 2006. Throw out or modify those with little relevance to patient safety, cut back on the micro-management and petty requirements. Let the medical profession focus once again on delivering cost-effective healthcare to the public.
I have already mentioned 10 things a new Health Minister needs to address and I sincerely hope the new Health Minister will also look into these broad issues which affect the nation’s healthcare needs. We are not spending enough on healthcare. I recall a colleague saying that the PM had told him to find ways to reduce expenditure on cancer treatment. The sad fact is that Malaysia under-spends on cancer treatment as many patients do not in fact receive optimal care as some of the newer treatments are simply too expensive and beyond the means of uninsured patients and not covered under MOH hospital budgets. So if the new Health Minister can fight for greater allocation in healthcare and if the new Government will realise that the voting public is watching you closely, and expecting you to be more accountable for your actions, then perhaps you will do better in the next GE. If on the other hand we continue to see wastage of public funds, corrupt practices and poor management then you’ll bet we’ll vote in a new Government the next GE!
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March 9th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
bigger healthcare budget allocation and better management of our resources. I agreed on the part that most of our funds are badly utilised and whoever is the future health minister should look into this.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Not only badly utilised funds but simply inadequate funding. Don’t believe the spin that the Government is “spending too much” on healthcare.