Letters
by CSK

I am a local graduate and have been in practice for 31 years. I am basically a physician by training and received my qualifications from the Royal Colleges in 1985. I see mainly kidney ailments and their predisposing illnesses which usually are high blood pressure, diabetes and heart ailments.

I was in government service for twenty years and the remainder now in private practice. I run a clinic in Penang and have visitation rights to private hospitals.

When I was in government service, yes, there was much bureaucracy. But nothing of the sort we see today. There was a greater deal of camaraderie. And although there were differences with private hospitals or clinics, generally everyone learned to work together.

When I first opened my clinic, it was fairly a straightforward affair. Apart from my APC (Annual Practicing Certificate), it was just ensuring the clinic was adequately equipped to treat the type of patients which I knew I would be treating, and making certain I had the type of medication I wanted to prescribe to my patients generally.

My first brush with the law, if you can call it that, came when a group of government medical assistants and health inspectors walked into my clinic without notice and brusquely gave me a warning regarding a new rule regarding toxic waste and how we should dispose them in yellow containers recommended by the ministry. I complied.

About two years later, there were problems regarding my X-ray machine, when third parties who appeared not so knowledgeable but apparently approved by the Ministry of Health, started walking in and out of my clinic for purposes of calibration and licence renewals. I could not quite understand why the supplier or manufacturer himself was not allowed to service or calibrate these machines. The cost ran into thousands of ringgit which I had to pay.

To add insult to injury, I was forced to attend Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs run by what looked like staff who didn’t know much about the programs they were conducting despite myself having a qualified radiographer to do the X-Rays. The cost of the CME programs again had to be borne by me.

And then came the PHFSA (Private Health Care, Facilities and Services Act). No one understood the need for this Act. In this respect I must praise ex-Health Minister, Chua Jui Meng, for putting this nonsensical Act into cold storage. However Chua Soi Lek and a couple of not so clever ministry staff, typically without the approval of the very people it was going to affect in the private sector, got together and convinced the government to pass this Act in parliament.

They say that an idiot is a stupid person with a mental age below three years, while a moron is a stupid person with a mental age of between seven to twelve years. I am uncertain which category the Ministry staff who conjured these laws belonged to. Even the opposition didn’t or could not make much noise.

Doctors were forced to register clinics, made to pay hefty registration fees, comply by doing expensive renovations and buy unnecessary equipment unrelated to the type of practice they had. And despite this, the authorities can still choose to provide or not provide a license as and when they please. Many unnecessary trips had to be made to the Ministry which these days seemed to be staffed by Indonesian and Manipal graduates or by doctors who have not worked a single day as an independent doctor in a clinic of their own.

Politics was certainly not standing at the door of my clinic anymore. It had come right in and engulfed my practice with a red tape which I could not keep up with any certainty.

Despite all the noise regarding a Dr. Basmullah who apparently was jailed pertaining to this Act, the Pakatan Rakyat has not made any clear statements if they would repeal this law and the many other restrictions placed on medical practices by qualified, fully registered Malaysian doctors if they came to power.

It is uncertain if Malaysian doctors would be squeezed out first by our own government or by AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) when full implementation with regard to the liberalization of medical services takes place soon.

As for now, at least, I think I have heard and seen enough. Despite the scandalous mortality and morbidity the country faces due to the largely ignored dengue scourge and possibly many other illnesses, and despite knowing from past and current experiences regarding the tacky standards in government hospitals, they appear to be above the law without accountability nor transparency.

For now, I have decided to take more time off from my medical practice and spend sometime now instead to focus on helping remove this government. As a doctor in private practice, I just want this government with all its Little Napoleons and conniving, corrupted, incompetent, Ketuanan Melayu civil servants gone.

I believe now that this government is incorrigible and beyond redemption. The time to work as friends within the system has long since passed. If we are to save this once beautiful and free country, it is apparent at least to me now that this government must first be removed.

CSK