Materia Medica Malaysiana

Private wards in govt hospitals next year

Kuala Lumpur: The Government has agreed in principle to set up private wards in selected government hospitals by next year, Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek said Monday.

“We had some meetings and probably we need to re-look at some of the government general orders that may have to be amended before government hospitals can charge the full rate that the private hospitals are charging,” he said.

He said the proposal was made because currently, patients referred to government hospitals by private hospitals were charged government rates.

“For example, in Penang and Sarawak, the cardiology unit is doing a lot of operations (in cases) which are actually referred by private hospitals but we cannot charge them the full rate because our fees are controlled by the Government,” he told a news conference in Seri Kembangan, near here.

Earlier, he witnessed the signing of an agreement to promote a health-based tourism programme between Hotel Palace of the Golden Horses (POGH) and Ken-Air Leisure Sdn Bhd (Ken-Air).

The trial project would involve government hospitals in several locations nationwide, Chua said, adding, “...maybe one in the north...two in the central and one in the south and even in East Malaysia, maybe one in Sarawak and one in Sabah.”

He said his Ministry and the Tourism Ministry were collaborating to promote medical tourism.

“We have started in Indonesia and we are going to promote to the Middle East. We have calendar events for promotions overseas which we will distribute to 35 private hospitals recognised by the Government as hospitals which can accept tourists for medical services.

These hospitals had to provide either ministry with information like the patient’s bills, place of origin and type of medical service so that the ministries could plan promotions and marketing more effectively, he said.

However, the response was not encouraging because each month, only half of the 35 hospitals involved provided the information, he added.

He said they had been given another six months to provide the information, failing which they would be dropped from the list of 35 recognised hospitals and would not be included when the Health Ministry, with the help of the Tourism Ministry, conducted promotions overseas. - Bernama