No need to get that MC endorsed

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: The days of civil servants spending hours getting medical certificates issued by private doctors endorsed at government hospitals are over. With immediate effect, civil servants will only have to do so if they have taken more than 15 days of medical leave that year.
Public Service Department director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Adam, in a circular, said the new ruling applied to employees of State Governments, statutory bodies and local councils.
The rule was a recognition of higher standards in private medical practice.
Ismail said those admitted at private hospitals for up to 180 days in a year would also no longer be required to get their certificates endorsed.
He said civil servants were eligible for a maximum of 180 days medical leave in a year — 90 days to be approved by the department head and another 90 days by the ministry’s secretary-general.
Only people suffering from chronic illnesses such as cancer are eligible for such leave.
It is a standard procedure for the Government to recommend that civil servants who spend over 180 days in hospital be medically boarded out.
A PSD official said the ruling had been relaxed so that the burden of doctors in the public hospitals could be reduced.
Cuepacs president Datuk Noordin Abdul Hamid thank- ed the Government, adding that the previous ruling was burdensome.
"We thank the Government for relaxing the ruling. Previously, civil servants would have to incur unnecessary cost," he said.