Quotes from NST:
10 Aug 2006
DR A. SOORIAN, Seremban
THE Government should defer the implementation of the newly-passed Private Healthcare and Services Act 1998 and Regulations (2006) for at least two years.
There are some 10,000 private medical practitioners in the country and the Government is set to collect RM15 million when they register under the new Act, at RM1,500 a doctor.
Right now, a doctor pays only RM50 for the Annual Practising Certificate.
The law is supposed to be the cement of society. But if it is impenetrable concrete, then it defeats the very purpose for which it is designed.
Such is this new medical Act. A doctor who fails to register his clinic can be fined RM300,000 or sentenced to a prison term of up to six years, or both, if convicted. What could be more draconian than this?
The director-general of Health is vested with so much power that he can reject applications for registration without assigning any reason. Even the Internal Security Act pales in insignificance when one notes that this new law is directed at the much acclaimed "noblest of professions".
Being an ex-Member of Parliament and law graduate, I must say that this law takes the cake. Nothing has been left to the imagination.
Clinic regulations encompass the staff, doors, toilets, floors, piping, electricity supply including generators, sewage, water supply, refuse and minimum standard areas for reception, waiting, administration, examination and utility rooms.
The director-general wants to know almost everything about the clinic, ranging from your bank statements to where you keep what in the clinic, what germicide you use for cleaning and the mode.
Under the Act, clinics should be away from noise, odour, smoke, dust and any other pollutants. How on earth is this possible in our industrialised environment?
The minister gives us verbal assurances that such penalties as jail terms "will not happen". Then why put it into law?
Doctors, by and large, do charity work on their own accord without much fanfare.
If you increase the costs of medical practice by mandating cast-iron regulations, including opening the floodgates to trivial patient grievances, it is the consumer who ultimately suffers as doctors will be forced to practise defensive medicine involving higher insurance premiums.
The potential for blackmail by highly-strung patients may be the scenario, given that the Act gives any unhappy patient the "green light" for all kinds of complaints and redress at every stage of doctor-patient relationship.
It will take us poor doctors time to digest all the implications of this Act. So we implore the authorities to defer the implementation of the Act for at least two years for a full and frank open debate for meaningful amendments to be made, rendering it more palatable.
You can read more at
MMR
Register or face fine
Too lazy to read.
There are some 10,000 private medical practitioners in the country and the Government is set to collect RM15 million when they register under the new Act, at RM1,500 a doctor.
Right now, a doctor pays only RM50 for the Annual Practising Certificate.
The law is supposed to be the cement of society. But if it is impenetrable concrete, then it defeats the very purpose for which it is designed.
Such is this new medical Act. A doctor who fails to register his clinic can be fined RM300,000 or sentenced to a prison term of up to six years, or both, if convicted. What could be more draconian than this?
The director-general of Health is vested with so much power that he can reject applications for registration without assigning any reason. Even the Internal Security Act pales in insignificance when one notes that this new law is directed at the much acclaimed "noblest of professions".
Being an ex-Member of Parliament and law graduate, I must say that this law takes the cake. Nothing has been left to the imagination.
Clinic regulations encompass the staff, doors, toilets, floors, piping, electricity supply including generators, sewage, water supply, refuse and minimum standard areas for reception, waiting, administration, examination and utility rooms.
The director-general wants to know almost everything about the clinic, ranging from your bank statements to where you keep what in the clinic, what germicide you use for cleaning and the mode.
Under the Act, clinics should be away from noise, odour, smoke, dust and any other pollutants. How on earth is this possible in our industrialised environment?
The minister gives us verbal assurances that such penalties as jail terms "will not happen". Then why put it into law?
Doctors, by and large, do charity work on their own accord without much fanfare.
If you increase the costs of medical practice by mandating cast-iron regulations, including opening the floodgates to trivial patient grievances, it is the consumer who ultimately suffers as doctors will be forced to practise defensive medicine involving higher insurance premiums.
The potential for blackmail by highly-strung patients may be the scenario, given that the Act gives any unhappy patient the "green light" for all kinds of complaints and redress at every stage of doctor-patient relationship.
It will take us poor doctors time to digest all the implications of this Act. So we implore the authorities to defer the implementation of the Act for at least two years for a full and frank open debate for meaningful amendments to be made, rendering it more palatable.
You can read more at
MMR
Register or face fine
Too lazy to read.
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