Don't regulate doctors to the teeth
Do not regulate doctors to the teeth. Consult medical bodies for more acceptable regulations such as on design of clinics and emergency facilities.
Establish workable mechanism to select more suitable candidates to be trained as doctors.
Promulgate laws to protect doctors who help during emergencies.
Formulate guidelines and codes of ethics for managed care.
DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw took part in the debate on the 2007 Supply Bill (Budget) on 7.9.2006 when he also spoke briefly on the enforcement of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) 1998.
The Health Ministry has been trying to enforce the PHFSA. For example, in the general design requirement of clinics, it did insist that the doors and stairs must be at least four feet wide and all clinics must have emergency equipment. (The Health Minister Datuk (Dr) Chua Soi Lek, having practised privately for some years as a doctor, is trying to see things in the right perspective).
The Director-General (DG) of Health has good intention to weed out black sheep and to protect the public. But, he is obsessed with public health, being relatively unfamiliar with the conditions of practising physicians and surgeons.
We are short of doctors in government hospitals and rural areas. We require better doctors. In Malaysia, the Government seems to be concerned with training more of them. Just because students have good examinations results, it does not mean that they are suitable to be doctors. Some are not. Much as parents yearning that their children become doctors, the Government must have workable mechanism to select more suitable candidates to be trained as doctors.
Like all professions, there are black sheep in medicine. However, most doctors are ethical. It is not reasonable to regulate them to the teeth.
For the General Design Requirement of clinics under the PHFSA, the DG should have consulted various medical bodies for more acceptable regulations.
Most doctors would like to help patients in emergency. But, as society changes, the Government must promulgate laws to protect them.
There is an urgent need to formulate guidelines and codes of ethics for managed care to ensure that things are run ethically, including payment to doctors in time. As it is, doctors wait for a long time to get paid. This must change.
posted by Tan Seng Giaw @ 9/13/2006 11:50:00 PM
1 Comments:
Ebagum Doctor!
In case, you have forgotten, this used to be a Yorkshire greeting!
Watched the recent Debat Perdana and I think you have done well. I bet most of the audience were amused by your accent - more like a Orang Putih speaking Malay!
Like most changes in Malaysia, except political system, they are mostly overkill, causing hardships to the majority affected.
Like the courses for company directors where the majority affected were the directors of small private companies, some dormant ones.
Dirty toilets? Well, how about intelligent ones costing over Rm1 million each?
Lack of high standard universities?
How about building on a Harvard design, instead of filling with Harvard standard professors!
KL too congested? How about building a totally new capital and transfer the traffic jams to between KL and Putrajaya and making it expensive for those from out of town to deal with relevant ministries?
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