GPs deserve proper remuneration
I REFER to the report on the proposed amendments to the 7th Schedule of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services (Private Medical Clinics or Private Dental Clinics) Regulations 2006 under Act 586 Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998.
The goal of the amendments is to “harmonise” the fees to sync with fees charged by medical officers in private hospitals.
It may come as a surprise why specialists in private hospitals are equally concerned, but only those who are in the system understand the role played by general practitioners and the impact it will have on our healthcare delivery system if many GPs are forced to close their practice due to rising costs and static professional fees with small profit margins.
As in all private healthcare entities that are not reliant on taxes or public funding for the running of their operations, any attempt to undermine their role by forcing them out of a non-sustainable livelihood will backfire.
GPs play important roles in a community.
Before becoming a specialist, I, like many colleagues, worked hard to make ends meet in general practice clinics.
I would see five to 10 patients an hour in a four-hour shift. Over a course of a few years, many patients became regular patients.
And it has been a joy to manage some of them.
So I can imagine the role played by GPs who are there for them on most days.
They know the problems they face, medical or non-medical, and become their confidante. GPs become not only a healer but also a provider of other roles.
So any delay in looking at remuneration will only make GPs go down the path of the dodo bird, something I never imagined would happen in my lifetime.
But I’ve never expected a change in government in my lifetime as well, and yet, here we are today. The coalition has given its name as Pakatan Harapan, or Coalition of Hope.
It is my hope and of other doctors and specialists that GPs are given the remuneration that they deserve.