Materia Medica Malaysiana

Chua: We will not issue the licence

The Andalas Medical Centre in Klang, which is embroiled in a controversy over the alleged illegal employment of foreign workers, will not be issued a licence, as far as the Health Ministry is concerned.

This is because the centre has run foul of the law by not meeting several technical conditions, such as the lack of fire safety measures and the use of unapproved X-ray machines.

“We have already said it will not be approved because it does not meet the technical conditions. It is operating illegally,” Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek told The Malay Mail after chairing the Ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting yesterday.

Following Dr Chua’s disclosure on Monday that the centre has been operating illegally since September 2001, the medical centre challenged the Minister’s right to question its legality.

In a statement issued on Tuesday night, the medical centre claimed that it wished “to remind the Minister that only through a legal process can any business entity be deemed illegal”.

The statement, which was unsigned, said the centre had submitted all relevant details to the Ministry of Health since September 2001 for the purpose of licence renewal.

“Since then, we have responded to the numerous enquiries and requests for clarification from the Ministry of Health. We are awaiting the approval from the Ministry,” it said.

It also hit out at Dr Chua for “issuing damaging statements through the Press”.

In response, the Minister yesterday reminded the centre that submitting an application for a licence does not legalise an establishment.

“The fact that they are operating does not mean that they are legal. The fact that they are applying for a licence also does not mean they are legal,” he said.

He said that besides not meeting fire safety conditions, the medical centre was hauled to court by the Ministry more than a year ago for offering X-ray services without a licence. The case is still pending.

Dr Chua said all X-ray machines needed to be approved by the Ministry on a yearly basis.

Dr Chua, who pledged to weed out the bad apples in the industry, hopes the public would be more aware of such centres, following adverse publicity in the Press.

The status of the Andalas Medical Centre came to light after the The Malay Mail published on March 31, a report quoting the centre’s former employee, Indian national S. Malini, as alleging that she had not been paid her salary since January, and that her passport was being withheld by the medical centre for the purported purpose of applying for a work permit.

She had come to Malaysia to work as a radiographer with the medical centre, and alleged that the centre did not apply for a work permit for her and had been giving excuses each time she enquired about her passport.

Consumer Association of Subang and Shah Alam (CASSA) president Jacob George had also said that the association took the matter up with the Health Ministry and Immigration Department.

George had also alleged that the medical centre recruited more than 30 foreigners illegally and that CASSA’s lawyers would defend Malini on her allegations against the centre.