MMA wants ministry to introduce guidelines for doctors

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry should introduce guidelines for doctors to report to the authorities about patients suspected of criminal involvement.

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Ravindran Naidu said this would prevent another incident, such as the case of a private clinic doctor who had failed to lodge a report after treating Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia naval cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain.

Dr Ravindran said if doctors were sure that a criminal act had been committed against their patients, they should lodge a report.

However, he said, as medical confidentiality was important, the suspicion would have to be strong before deciding to make the report.

“I’ve been made to understand that it is required by the law that anyone who knows of a criminal act is obliged to make a report. Patient confidentiality is not an excuse,” he said yesterday.

Dr Ravindran said he hoped that Health Minister Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam and his officials would listen to the doctor’s side of the story.

“What the doctor saw at the time of the patient’s visit might have been different from what was observed during the postmortem. If the injuries were consistent with the history given by the victim, the doctor might have had no suspicion of any commission of an unlawful act,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam had, on Sunday, said the doctor who treated Zulfarhan would be summoned by the ministry to explain the matter.

It was reported that after receiving treatment for his injuries on May 27, Zulfarhan was allowed to go home. He then asked him to return for treatment on May 31 but he failed to turn up.

He was found unconscious in a condominium unit in Bangi and was rushed to Serdang Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on June 1.