MHC to close 13 dialysis centres
SEREMBAN: Thirteen centres operated by the Mawar Haemodialysis Centre (MHC) nationwide will have to shut down following the Health Ministry’s decision to close its headquarters here.
MHC chairman Datin Chua Lay Ping said the centres’ operations would cease as they were funded by the parent facility, which was sealed on Thursday by the ministry.
“The only way these centres can continue to operate is if they get donations,” she said.
Apart from a dialysis centre, MHC, which was set up in 1997, was also licensed to run the 98-bed Mawar Medical Centre (MMC), which was ordered to stop operations in November last year follow- ing widespread resignation of all but one of its specialists.
On Thursday, the ministry sealed the premises, which houses both MHC and MMC, as their licence was revoked on Dec 14 last year.
The ministry also shut down the main dialysis centre as the management did not abide by a directive to ensure all its dialysis patients were referred to other licensed centres.
MHC centres have more than 200 dialysis machines. Apart from its six centres in Negri Sembilan, its other facilities were in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
Despite the closure of the MHC headquarters, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the MHC would still be allowed to transfer the licences of the other 13 centres to other non-profit bodies to ensure patients would continue to receive financial subsidies.
Chua expressed hope that the ministry would approve the management’s application for a new licence.
“We have submitted a new appli- cation thrice after our licence was revoked but it was cancelled each time. We are meeting the minister on Monday and hope our application will be reconsidered for the sake of the patients,” she said.