Only 'hands-on' doctors need handle emergencies

NST: PUTRAJAYA: Medical specialists like pathologists and radiologists will be exempted from giving emergency treatment under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act.
This is because they don’t have recent "hands-on" experience and may do the patient more harm than good.
The Health Ministry will draw up the list to clearly state the specialist doctors to be exempted.
Generally, they would be specialists who did not normally provide primary healthcare to patients, said minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
"The more specialised doctors are, the more problems in giving emergency treatment as they do not have the hands-on experience anymore," he said after launching the Operating Manual and Standard Operating Procedures for Private Medical Clinics yesterday.
The manual was prepared by the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations (FPMPAM) as a guide on how to implement the Act.
The Act, which came into force in May, was controversial as many private practitioners felt they would be unable to meet some of its requirements, one of them being the availability and provision of emergency medical equipment and treatment at their clinic or centre. Certain specialists felt they would be held liable unfairly as they were not able to perform such treatment.
The manual for private medical clinics costs RM25, and will be distributed through individual FPMPAM members in the states.
The manual outlines procedures for providing basic emergency care services, general operations and maintenance, steps in case of disasters in the clinic’s vicinity, grievance mechanisms, sample forms and registers to standardise the operations of private facilities.
FPMPAM has also proposed that doctors who provide "free and voluntary emergency care should be protected from liability".
Dr Chua said the ministry had to study this carefully in relation to legal implications, as what was "voluntary" treatment was open to interpretation.
On renovations, Dr Chua said clinics seeking exemption would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The Act requires clinics to comply with certain physical specifications, and FPMPAM had estimated that the cost of renovations would total over RM250 million.
Dr Chua said he understood the difficulties faced in renovating clinics located in shoplots, within complexes or in rural areas where clinics were often just a wooden house.