Liow Tiong Lai, the PHFSA …and warrior mosquitoes

Liow Tiong Lai, the PHFSA ?and warrior mosquitoes
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/05/03/liow-tiong-lai-the-phfsa-and-warrior-mosquitoes/
Letters
by Suka Jaga Tepi Kain

Thus far the new health minister, Liow Tiong Lai has made two statements
regarding the notorious PHFSA (Private Healthcare, Facilities and Services Act).
One is that doctors should not own too many clinics as they will not be able to
focus on seeing patients (that is if they are still seeing patients) and the
other is that of private hospitals overcharging. In today?s Star, the DG, Ismail
Merican wrote a letter about how the Ministry used its enforcement resources to
track down a ?bogus Burmese doctor? who worked with a private hospital following
a complaint. Hopefully this complaint was genuine and not borne out of
professional jealousy.

This doctor was apparently employed previously by the DG?s own alma mater,
University Malaya but became ?bogus? when he left their employment. Presumably
he or she had MMC registration previously. Could this not have been solved by a
simple phone call to the hospital asking them to make certain the doctor renews
his registration? Or was this created by the MMC themselves by dilly dallying
his registration or worse still being obstructive in not renewing his
registration? Or perhaps, what is deemed proper by the University Malaya, is not
being deemed proper by the MMC or the MOH?

It is no secret that a great many of the Ministry?s own doctors are treating
patients without registration. But the DG has seen it fit to apply Section 31(1)
(c) of Act 586 of the PHFSA fastidiously in going after a single doctor who
apparently is a bona fide one but is now technically not because his
registration was not renewed or perhaps pending renewal. Mercifully no one was
prosecuted. Apparently three cases have been prosecuted. Two are awaiting trial
and one pleaded guilty. And we all know what happened to that one doctor who
pleaded guilty don?t we? Liow should ask this DG, who obviously is still
obsessed with this Act, as to what happened to all the promised amendments that
he and Chua Soi Lek agreed to? Another broken promise? Tak Tau? Not within his
powers? Ask the AG? You see. This is why you lose elections. The MCA just cannot
keep its promises simply because it has no control over the pathetic civil
service that attempts to run this Ministry. You want to know more. Just ask Chua
Jui Meng.

It is all very proper for the Minister to complain that certain doctors own too
many clinics. Perhaps they do. And perhaps too, they are good managers who know
how to handle their resources. As for the 250 private hospitals overcharging,
what exactly does the Minister plan to do? Is he going to send enforcement
officers to pore over itemized bills and lock up hospital managers, their
doctors or specialists? Understand first, that private hospitals function in a
different climate. It is called market forces. Supply and demand. You limit the
number of specialists and hospitals in the private sector and at the same time
run a poor public service hospital, then this is what you get. Overcharging and
various dubious attempts to make a profit. It happens in almost every industry
right from rice to diesel. How do you curb this? You either improve your own
services or decentralize your hospitals into Trusts as in the UK or corporatise
or privatize them as in Singapore or the US. Competition always seems to have a
sobering effect on enterprise. The Health Department, then, basically takes on a
monitoring role and focuses on public health.

Which brings the issue of the Ministry?s recent proposal to deploy millions of
genetically modified ?warrior? mosquitoes to fight dengue fever. The mosquitoes
are apparently to be released first in Pulau Ketam. Has Liow been to Pulau
Ketam? Does he actually know why this island has a high incidence of dengue?
Pulau Ketam is 10 nautical miles from Port Klang and has a population of about
10,000 Teochew, Hokkien and Hainanese villagers. It?s specialty ? seafood. But
it holds one sordid detail. Pulau Ketam has to be the dirtiest island on earth
or at least Malaysia. A walk along its passageways will reveal appalling filth
and garbage in the form of containers, bottles, metal sheets, engines and even
dead animals strewn all over the island especially under the stilts.

Not all of it is the islanders? fault as some of the rubbish could be as a
result of the highly polluted Klang River. The MOH has one health facility on
the island itself. There is another facility hardly 300 meters from the Port
Klang jetty where the previous South Port stands. Two kilometers away the
Ministry has another health facility at Telok Gadong. In addition the MPK
(Majlis Perbandaran Klang) has its own health facility in town itself. Could the
MOH not make concerted efforts with a clearly overwhelmed Alam Flora to clear
the rubbish and improve the virtually non-existent sewage facilities at Pulau
Ketam instead of dabbling in dodgy genetic engineering experiments? Does it not
have the public health and enforcement resources to clean up the island or has
it spent it all in implementing the PHFSA and going after ?bogus? doctors or
health facilities.

It is status quo at the Ministry of Health isn?t it? Prioritization appears to
be a problem. Nothing really has changed. Despite the MCA being virtually
whitewashed in the recent elections with it losing support from not only its own
community but Malaysians in general, it still runs this Ministry. The reason why
this Ministry will never improve is obvious. It just doesn?t have proper
management. Despite Ong Ka Ting?s belated attempts to redeem himself and make
the MCA more relevant, it will not be able to do so in a BN hopelessly
handicapped with ineffectual civil servants who have only seen one side of the
coin ? government service. Not a single health professional in this Ministry has
any experience working in the private sector where accountability is all but
mandatory. Any experienced healthcare professional in the private sector can
reform healthcare services in this country to be on par with the rest of the
world. As evidenced especially with the new governments in Penang and Selangor,
the only way this Ministry is going to improve is for the PR to come to power.
And for the sake of all Malaysians, the sooner the better.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 (2 hours ago) at 07: 53.59 (2
hours ago) and is filed under Health, Letters. You can follow any responses to
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2 Responses to ?Liow Tiong Lai, the PHFSA ?and warrior mosquitoes?
drngsc Says:

Today at 08: 57.45 (57 minutes ago)
When we met with YB Dato Liow, MOH, we have actually asked for the Act to be
re-named ? Healthcare facilities and services Act ? to reflect that this Act is
for all healthcare services in Malaysia. There should be no distinction between
healthcare standards in Public and Private hospitals. What is good for Public
shoyld also be good for Private. I think that is what the Rakyat expects.

drngsc Says:

Today at 08: 58.20 (56 minutes ago)
When we met with YB Dato Liow, MOH, we have actually asked for the Act to be
re-named ? Healthcare facilities and services Act ? to reflect that this Act is
for all healthcare services in Malaysia. There should be no distinction between
healthcare standards in Public and Private hospitals. What is good for Public
should also be good for Private. I think that is what the Rakyat expects.

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