Register or face fine of RM300,000, doctors told

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Doctors, register your clinics or face a fine of up to RM300,000.
This is the warning Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek issued to 7,800 private medical practitioners nationwide.
Since the enforcement of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 and Regulations (2006) in May, less than five per cent of the doctors had paid the RM1,500 registration fees.
"They only have three months left to do so."
He assured that all registrations would be accepted, provided the application forms were in order.
Dr Chua said doctors must also submit the layout plan of their clinics as some did not have doors wide enough for a stretcher or a wheelchair to pass through.
He said the Act might have weaknesses but that was not an excuse for doctors not to register their clinics.
He was commenting on a newspaper report quoting former judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar who sought to defer the implementation of the Act and Regulations on the grounds that there were many grey areas that needed to be fine-tuned.
Dr Chua and director-general of Health Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican had met Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia president Dr Steven K.W. Chow and Malaysian Medical Association president Datuk Dr Teoh Siang Chin over the matter.
"I will hold further discussions with MMA next month and when I have all the facts, amendments will be made to the Act," he said.
He added that roadshows were also held in all States to explain the Act and Regulations.
Dr Chua also hoped Dr Chow would stop telling people that he was not consulted on the Act.
He said previous association presidents were consulted and Dr Chow was not the president when the Act was passed in the Parliament.
He said the first meeting was held on Sept 8, 1993 and was chaired by the then director-general of Health and attended by the then presidents of both the associations. It was followed by another 46 meetings before the Act was tabled and passed in Parliament.