By Dr Helmy Haja Mydin | May 20, 11
Malaysiakini

One of the essential features of a successful healthcare system is the presence of a well-organised primary care service that provides comprehensive services to the public that it serves.

Primary care services are usually delivered by a general practitioner(GP) and should ideally deal with a wide range of healthcare issues, from dealing with minor acute ailments to keeping a lid on the development of chronic illnesses.
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Joint letter by Drs Ong, Haniffah & Palaniappan | Apr 19, 11
Malaysiakini

The government is introducing a new financing scheme for primary care (1Care for 1Malaysia) by forming a private company/corporation to act as an insurance company and managed-care organisation (MCO). We believe this company will:

i) collect funds from all working adults and employers

ii) pay for all primary care expenses ie. for outpatient visit, test and medication at both private and government clinics

In theory this scheme will save consumers from having to pay out-of-pocket for their primary care and thus protect them from excessive healthcare expenses. In reality the new company may become a middle man profiting from patients and their caregivers, with the result that healthcare costs go up, standard of treatment may drop and the public is burdened with a new healthcare tax.
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By Wong Ho Leng

Because of the Sarawak election, he delayed his cataract operation…

That fateful morning, we were put up at Kingwood Hotel, Kuching. I wasn’t surprised that LKS had called at 7 something in the morning. He does that quite often to me, to exchange political views. But this was an exceptional morning. He said something was wrong, and he wanted to meet me at the cafeteria of the hotel. 15 minutes later, he called again, and asked me to be in his room. I saw LGE, in his pyjamas, with his dad. LKS had a serious eye infection. We earnestly looked for a specialist. It was too early, and it was a Sunday. Anyway, we managed to get one. CSC would be coming to fetch, and I accompanied LKS to his breakfast. We shared about his fear. From outside, he was cool as a cucumber. He obliged when hotel guests requested photo shoots with him. None of them knew that one of LKS’s eyes had suffered a serious vision impairment from a rare infection. To me, it was a long breakfast. As Siew Chiang’s car drove him off, I offered a silent prayer for LKS.

LKS is a workaholic. Despite his eye operation, he still worked with his iPAD, and, we still communicated over the phone. Each time, before we delved into politics, I asked him about his condition, and he would give me the most elaborate detail. He must have gone through unthinkable pain, and, reading the text of LGE’s statement, I can understand LGE’s feelings towards his dad…
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Letter by JT

It appears that yet again, CAP’s SM Idris has decided to go on a frolic of his own. This time by stating that Private Wings in Government Hospitals are the wrong things to do. Sometimes one really have to suspect if this guy truly knows what he is talking about or goes about criticizing everything and anything sundry just to occupy his time. There are only three components to a hospital bill: 1) Doctor’s fees 2) Hospital charges (Bed, Nursing, Utilities, Investigations, etc) and 3) Consumables (Medicines, gloves, catheters, stents, etc).

This government has been benevolent enough in providing and perhaps in the case of Sabah trying to provide, items 2 and 3 but cannot match up to 1. Idris wants equitable healthcare for everyone. When he says equitable what does he mean? If he means placing a few GTN tablets under the tongue for a heart attack, or placing a plaster of Paris cast for a broken tibia, or delivering the 3rd child in a mother with no co-morbidities, or putting up a drip for a dehydrated patient or placing a few stitches on a wound caused by the neighbor’s dog, that’s fine. This government would have no problems accommodating them.

But if he is talking about plating/nailing every fracture of a victim of a high speed polytraumatized patient, reconstructing all the facial bones in an accident victim, or doing a bypass for a coronary patient with recurrent pain or ballooning and placing an emergency stent in a patient with a heart attack or doing a liver transplant in a patient with liver cirrhosis, then Idris must surely know that even all of Malaysia’s Read the rest of this entry »