Liow: Provide flu feedback

Star: PUTRAJAYA: Private clinics must now fill feedback forms issued by the Health Ministry whenever they treat patients with Influenza A(H1N1).
The completed forms must be sent back to the ministry daily to ensure cases of the virus were reported accurately and quickly, said minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
“The forms were given to the hospitals and clinics to help update the Government so that we can monitor the situation at the grassroots-level and ensure patients are given quick treatment,” he said after a dialogue session with various private medical associations here yesterday.
Liow said the ministry had given the private medical industry clear guidelines on treating patients suspected of having the pandemic virus.
“We stressed to the private sector that quick and proper treatment is needed for H1N1 and they fully understand this need,” he said.
At the dialogue session were representatives from the Malaysian Medical Association, Malaysian Private Hospitals Association, Primary Care Doctors Organisation Malaysia and Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Association Malaysia.
It has been reported that private medical practitioners were unclear on the guidelines set by the ministry, which they had claimed were varied and conflicting.
Liow said the associations were issued with flowcharts that detailed the treatment and procedures to be given to the patients according to the risk levels involved.
He explained that due to lack of facilities, private clinics must immediately refer all patients with moderate to high risk – to either private or government hospitals for further treatment.
This was to prevent late treatment of patients, a factor the Government had blamed as one of the reasons for the deaths related to the pandemic.
On the prices of anti-viral drugs, he said the ministry was also negotiating with local manufacturers to put a cap on prices.
“I assured the associations that there is enough supply of anti-viral drugs in the market. The ministry will intervene to lower the price of the anti-viral drugs,” he said.
He said although the market price was between RM120 and RM160 per unit, several companies were now selling it at RM80.
Liow also said a World Health Organisation monitoring team had indicated that Malaysia’s pandemic surveillance was “active and sensitive”.
“The organisation concurred our classification system was good to track the H1N1. We’ll continue to be vigilant,” he said.
Meanwhile, no new A(H1N1) deaths were registered yesterday, leaving the death toll at 71, with 259 confirmed cases.
Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said of the figure, 53 were in the Intensive Care Unit.
Forty-one were risk factor cases like those with chronic illnesses, obesity, children or babies, pregnant women, new mothers and Down Syndrome.