November Deadline For Private Clinics To Register With Ministry

KEPALA BATAS, July 14 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry has given private clinics until November to register themselves with the ministry or face suspension or closure.
The ministry's Parliamentary Secretary, Datuk Lee Kah Choon, said in addition to this, all private clinics are required to hire trained and qualified staff.
He said failure to do this would be breaching the Private Medical Care Facilities and Services Regulation 2006 that was gazetted last May 1, where offenders are given six months to toe the line.
Speaking to reporters after closing the Penang Young Doctors Convention, organised by the state Health Department and Education Department here today, he said so far, many of the private clinics have registered themselves.
The ministry would only know the actual number of private clinics operating in the country after this November, he added.
On news reports that 99 percent of nurses and dental surgery assistants in the private sector are unqualified, Lee said the ministry could not confirm the report but would probe the matter.
The report quoted Universiti Sains Malaysia's Dean of Dental Science School Centre, Prof Ab Rani Samsudin, who had said the situation arose due to the insufficient number of training institutes for such a skill.
Lee said that if the report were true, the private clinics, which hired these unqualified staff, are exposing their clients to the danger of malpractices while they themselves face legal action.
The regulation, recently gazetted, would help the government to monitor and enforce the law to ensure private clinics have the standard facilities and hire qualified staff.
On the young doctor programme, Lee said the programme had been made a co-curriculum activity by the ministry to expose primary school students to health-related matters.
He said the programme will be expanded to all schools as it helps to create positive thinking youths as well as inculcate interests to pursue a career in medicine.
He said there are 16 schools in Penang chosen to offer such a programme, participated by some 350 students.