Materia Medica Malaysiana

Consultation to quit smoking not free

PETALING JAYA: General practitioners (GPs) do not provide free counselling services to help smokers kick the habit, so patients seeking advice from them should be prepared to pay consultation fees.
“Asking GPs for help in this regard is just like visiting a psychiatrist to talk about problems,” said Malaysian Medical Association president Datuk Dr N. Arumugam.
There had been cases, he said, in which patients had gone to GPs for help but argued that it was unfair to charge them consultation fees.
“Malaysians are not used to this concept of ‘paying for advice’,” he said yesterday when commenting on how the private sector could support the Government’s free quit-smoking programme.
Dr Arumugam said some doctors were already interested in helping smokers quit.
“When more people realise they have to pay for such services, then only will more doctors offer such services. But on our part, most doctors will tell patients who smoke to give it up,” he said.
He added that poor publicity was the main reason why the Government’s free quit-smoking programme had not taken off.
“The programme is very small and not well publicised. Big posters or signs should be placed at the clinics and hospitals where the programme is available, and a list of the clinics put on the ministry website,” he said.
Meanwhile, GPs here acknowledged that many were not interested because helping a smoker quit needed much time.
Dr Kartar Singh said the success rate was very low for the time spent helping a patient.
“Nobody goes into it because of this and because many patients are not serious when it comes to quitting,” he added.
However, he felt the ministry should encourage more GPs to offer these services.
According to Dr Kunalan Samather, such services required much time as the GPs involved had to be trained and at the same time handle many patients.