Crack down on docs who treat beyond their field

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Some private medical specialists have been treating patients outside their field, and in two such cases, the patients died.
The Health Minister wants the guilty doctors to be publicly named.
While the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) investigated such cases, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek also wanted the MMC to make public the names of those guilty, as he believes that what doctors fear most is the “shame factor”.
“For doctors, it is all about branding. And I encourage the MMC to publish their names. If you fine them RM100,000, some doctors would not have any problems paying up in cash,” he said yesterday.
He added that amendments to the Medical Act, 1971 would make it compulsory to have specialists register according to their field, making it easier for the ministry to track down doctors carrying out the unethical practice.
“This unethical behaviour has to stop. It is marring the good name of the profession and public confidence,” he said after opening the 1st KL International Breast and Colorectal Cancer Congress.
He said three cases were reported to the ministry and MMC recently of such specialists having treated outside their field, resulting in the death of two patients.
One case, he said, was a nephrologist who had treated a patient diagnosed with dengue and typhoid.
Another was a neurologist treating a patient who had a bleeding gastric ulcer while another nephrologist treated a patient diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.
Dr Chua attributed the unethical practice to the fact that doctors in the private sector were facing stiff competition and also because Malaysians who sought treatment without referral from a general practitioner went to a physician they thought was “the most qualified”.
“If it is not their speciality, doctors should refer the patient to the relevant specialist, but this did not happen. They treated them until complications happened.”
“We have advised the family to sue the doctor concerned,” said Dr Chua.
Another unethical practice, he said, was specialists who engaged unqualified individuals to carry out medical tests, such as for blood glucose levels and blood pressure.