Doctors urged to improve services

Give more attention to improving services and spend less time on preparing for ISO certifications, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek told doctors and other hospital staff.
He agreed that an ISO certification was vital for administrative purposes but said that improving clinical facilities and services at hospitals was far more important.
“A patient complained to me that doctors sometimes miss appointments or were late as they are busy with paperwork for the ISO,” he said.
“The patient also said that ISO stands for Ingin Susahkan Orang (intending to bother others) as they are not happy with the services provided,” he said after visiting the Slim River Hospital here.
Dr Chua added, however, that he was happy that of the 135 public hospitals in the country, 20 had already achieved ISO accreditation.
At an earlier function in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Chua said healthcare could bring big bucks to the country if it was developed as an industry.
Realising this potential, he said, the Cabinet had given its approval to the setting up of a health service industry unit to promote this field, which would include herbal and pharmaceutical products, health tourism and medical equipment.
Dr Chua said the proposed unit would help the country develop and capture the potentially lucrative and untapped market of the healthcare industry.
In the next five years, it could reap RM8bil he said.
The unit would be set up in three months time, he told reporters before delivering a keynote address at the 26th Asian Medical Asian Students’ Conference.
Citing health tourism, he said the country could develop this sector like what Singapore and Thailand had done.
Dr Chua said more than 39,000 foreign patients received treatment at local private hospitals in 1998 and the figure increased to more than 174,000 last year. They spent RM105mil.
On medical equipment, he said exports – including condoms and gloves – reached RM4.6bil last year, making Malaysia one of the biggest exporters of medical devices.
Dr Chua added: “We are now in the midst of finalising the Medical Device Act 2006, which will enable us to set a benchmark of international standard to export our medical devices.”
Regarding herbal products, he said the export of various Chinese drugs and traditional herbs, like Tongkat Ali and Kacip Fatimah was growing, and was worth RM4bil a year.
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