Materia Medica Malaysiana

Ministry To Regulate Private Hospital Charges

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry is drafting regulations to control treatment and medical fees charged by private hospitals in the country, the Dewan Rakyat was told Wednesday.
Its parliamentary secretary, Lee Kah Choon, said the ministry was aware of the problem of high fees charged by the private hospitals on the people, including the not so rich.
"With these regulations, we hope to resolve the problem," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainudin Raja Omar (BN-Larut) who wanted to know whether the government was formulating laws to control the private hospital fees.
Earlier, when replying to Richard Riot Jaem (BN-Serian), Lee said one of the reasons the people had more confidence in private hospitals was the perception that private hospitals had better equipment and services.
The shortage of staff to attend to the large number of patients and the long waiting period in government hospitals also contributed to this, he said.
Lee also acknowledged that the staff shortage in government hospitals was due to medical specialists "absconding" to the private hospitals.
"Most of the specialists in the private hospitals started in the government hospitals and this shows that the government hospitals give the best service to the public," he said.