A letter to MPCN – Dr. Steven Chow

A bit of background:
The MPCN is a Facebook group for doctors and has been active in standing up for doctors rights. (The MPCAM is the registered NGO which has spring up from the MPCN). Links to the MPCN and other Facebook groups for doctors can be found in our page Doctors on Facebook. There is also an MPCN section in Dobbs, the Malaysian Doctors Forum (free registration for all Malaysian doctors, whether in Malaysia or abroad)

Dr. Steven Chow, President of the FPMPAM has recently written a long letter to the MPCN addressing Current Practice Issues

An excerpt:

1: PHFSA & Regulations
The Federation has been in the forefront objecting to and forewarning of the adverse implications the PHFSA and Regulations. When it was enforced on 24.4.2006 the justification by the Minister was that this law was meant to” protect patients and the public” and “ensure that the medical care of patients should rest solely in the hands of registered medical practitioners”. The law was meant to regulate the “business of medicine” and “empower the MOH to take action on unqualified healthcare practitioners like quacks etc etc”. It is indeed quite sad to note that in practice, the law has fallen short in these important objectives. I was shocked to hear this publicly admitted by the MOH recently .I am of the opinion that the Minister was wrongly advised.

Quacks, charlatans and their like continue to rampage through the nation. Patients are ripped off or just sent to RIP. Businessmen and big businesses now call the shots in almost all aspects of healthcare including dictating what doctors can and cannot do for their patients i.e: the business of medicine continues as usual. The law and its regulations continue to be seen to unnecessarily micromanage the operations of private clinics as if bona fide doctors are a whole bunch of unscrupulous businessmen/women.

Over the past 6 years, the Federation, MMA and other bodies have sat down in countless meetings with the MOH to draft and finalize amendments to the Regulations so as to amend the many “criminalizing” provisions. Up to the last meeting in 2011, we were told that these amendments would be forwarded to the AG Chambers before sending to the Cabinet for approval. We have worked on this past the term of office of two previous Ministers and two previous DGs of Health . We are still awaiting final news.

The whole letter together with links to the original PDF text is available in the doctors forum Dobbs
Letter to MPCN – Dr. Steven Chow. If you are a Malaysian doctor but not yet a Dobbs member, feel free to register today.

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Malaysian physician, haematologist, blogger, web and tech enthusiast