Minister to table review on consultation fees of private medical practitioners in due course - Health DG

SHAH ALAM, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad is expected to table a review on the consultation fees of medical practitioners at private clinics and hospitals at the Cabinet meeting in a week or two, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said discussions over the matter with various stakeholders are being carried out to ensure that the time was right to review the consultation fee. 

“The cabinet paper is being prepared and we have engaged with non-governmental organisations as well as patient support groups to gather their feedback if they are acceptive of the hike.

“So, we need to look at this from the economic and cost aspects as well as what is the suitable increase. This matter is still being discussed and at the end of it, the minister will table the paper to the cabinet to determine how much of a raise is suitable,” he told reporters after opening the World Health Organisation/International Agency for The Prevention of Blindness Western Pacific/Ministry of Health Western Pacific Cataract Surgical Outcome Conference at Shah Alam Hospital today.       The two-day conference which ends tomorrow, among others will discuss how to produce country and regional action plan to optimise cataract surgical outcome. 

Dr Noor Hisham said Consumers' Association of Penang and Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations had previously objected to the proposal to increase the fees.

Medical practitioners at private clinics and hospitals have requested for an increase in consultation fees from between RM10 to RM35 to RM35 and RM125.      Dr Noor Hisham however said the government has no plans to review its RM1 and RM5 registration charges for the people to seek outpatient and specialist care at government hospitals which have remained unchanged since 1982.

On another note, he said there are 300,000 new cataract patients recorded in the country annually who are on the waiting list to be operated.

Dr Noor Hisham said the capacity to carry out the operations stood at 1/3 and there was a need to increase efficiency and at the same time ensure quality of performance.

"The hospitals and mobile cataract services under the government have conducted 43,000 cataract surgery in 2017 with complication rate below 0.2 per cent," he said.   He also advised private hospitals to monitor the outcome of the cataract surgery conducted at their respective hospitals as what being done in hospitals under the health ministry for the past 10 years.

--BERNAMA