Materia Medica Malaysiana

MMA: Not all in white overalls are doctors

KUALA LUMPUR: They wear white overalls and carry stethoscopes when treating patients at health centres which provide anti-ageing treatment.
But they are not doctors, and this has got the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) concerned.
“It is alarming that many people are donning white coats, giving the false impression that they are Western-trained when they actually are not. They are doing this basically to give confidence to the client.
“The practice is becoming more common among beauty centres and traditional medicine practitioners,” MMA president Datuk Dr N. Arumugam said.
“Some of these centres are also named as health clinics. They are not to use the word clinics unless they are run by Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) registered doctors,” he added.
Dr Arumugam was commenting on the mushrooming of such centres, which promote Vitamin C injections and anti-ageing treatments using imported animal placenta and other forms of facial booster injection.
He reiterated that only trained practitioners and nurses should administer any form of injection, including Vitamin C.
He said doctors, unless otherwise stated in their Annual Practising Certificate (APC), should not be working in these health centres.
If there were doctors carrying out such practices, he said, clients should check their credentials.
He said the MMC had guidelines on doctors who could operate medical clinics.
“Anyone giving traditional and complementary treatment cannot be called doctors.
“They should not mislead the public into thinking that they are Western-trained,” he said.
The MMC had received complaints from general practitioners whose patients complained to them when treatment went wrong.
On fake medicines, Dr Arumugam said it was alarming to note that the Pharmaceutical Enforcement Division of the Health Ministry seized unregistered medicine and health supplements worth RM26mil last year.
He said the ministry’s move to make use of the Meditag hologram to check on illegal products was timely and there should be constant monitoring so that there was no abuse.