What’s the point of having 1Malaysia “clinics”?

From our Dobbs forum, a doctor mentions this incident:

Just had a guy with ACS present 2 days after going to 1M clinic with angina. No ECG available, told to ride his motorbike to the hospital! Son said if he knew how deficient it was, he would have gone straight to the klinik kesihatan.

and so what’s the point of having 1Malaysia clinics if the clinic

Doesn’t have a doctor on site. Only nurses and MAs. Supervision? Monitoring standards?
Doesn’t have many tests and medications on site.
Doesn’t have transport / ambulance.
Doesn’t have any allocation. Staff, meds etc are cannibalised from nearby klinik kesihatans & hospitals.

Really they are glorified nursing pondoks. If the PHFSA spells out that clinics must be manned by Doctors, then there should be no double standards. 1Malaysia “clinics” should be manned by doctors or not called clinics at all.
Sometime ago there was an exercise to invite doctors to help run 1Malaysia clinics – a laudable move but until and unless the 1Malaysia “clinic” is run by a doctor, it should not be called as such since the public may be misled into thinking they are.

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Malaysian physician, haematologist, blogger, web and tech enthusiast

5 Comments on “What’s the point of having 1Malaysia “clinics”?

  1. Every healthcare professional – doctors, pharmacists, nurses and others knows about this. In terms of patient safety, this is not a safe system. The root cause of this is the flaw in the existing national healthcare system. By right all General Practitioners (GPs) should be part of this in the primary care setting and by right the medicines should be dispensed by competent Community Pharmacist (CPs)
    .

  2. LAWS OF MALAYSIA
    Act 50
    MEDICAL ACT 1971

    Offences
    33. (1) ANY PERSON NOT REGISTERED or exempted from registration under this Act who—
    (f) USES THE TERM “CLINIC” or “dispensary” or “hospital” or the equivalent of any of these terms in any other language in THE SIGNBOARD OVER HIS PLACE OF PRACTICE IN PURPORTED PRACTICE OF MEDICINE or surgery as a person registered under this Act; or
    (g) uses a symbol designed by the Council for the use of registered medical practitioners only,
    SHALL BE GUILTY OF AN OFFENCE AGAINST THIS ACT.

  3. There should be clear notices that the 1Malaysia “clinic” is for very simple basic nursing and very minor illnesses. Perhaps the term “1Malaysia Pondok Kesihatan” is more appropriate and the term “clinic” should not be used unless it is manned by a doctor.

  4. Thank you THLiew for such an enlightening excerpt of Medical Act.

    Why is 1Malaysia ‘Clinic’ can be placed above the law?

    Where’s the regulatory body – MMC?

    No doctors,not even the ones who walk the corridor of power (you know who you are), dare to stand up and sue the relevant authority for the violation of law.

    Everyone choose to be politically-correct and remain the silent people, who continue to condone the wrong – again and again and again.