ONE important task for Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and the cabinet to look into is the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (PHFSA), which came into force last year amid an outcry from private doctors.

As with the introduction of Fomema (for monitoring health of foreign workers) and the proposed e-Kesihatan (for monitoring health of transport workers), the stakeholders, that is the private doctors and patients, did not play any major part in PHFSA’s adoption.

The threat of a RM300,000 fine was enough to send all private doctors scurrying for registration forms.

The concession was that the authorities would not use the act without due care and regard to private practitioners and that its goal was to weed out bogus doctors.

Is it now still necessary to ask why a doctor from a local university with a valid annual practising certificate that qualifies him to practise professionally in this country (Dr Basmullah Yusom) is in jail because of the PFHSA, which professes to do otherwise?

His only crime was the failure to register his clinic as he was planning to move to another locality soon.

I and the majority of private doctors in this country would like the PFHSA to be repealed.

Most doctors have only one goal in mind, that is, their patients’ welfare.

I am not suggesting that errant doctors or practices should not be regulated, as there are many acts in place to do that, but the fact remains that the PFHSA has too many regulations and can be easily misused.

In all fairness, the PFHSA should also be renamed and revamped as the Facilities and Health Services Act without the word “private” as I believe that the same high standards should be demanded of all health facilities and services, be it private or government in this country.

DR JOHN TEO, Kota Kinabalu

Source: NST – March 31, 2008