APHM in talks to register people for NIP, help in vaccination

The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) is in communication with the Special Committee on Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee to sort out finer details to register patients for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).

APHM president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said it also proposed to start discussions immediately.

“We hope to increase the options for the public and private patients to register manually with the assistance of our staff at our private hospitals into the system.

“This will be for the free vaccines provided by the government. Private hospitals are currently in discussion to confirm our commitment to vaccinate the public using the vaccines provided by the government,” he said yesterday.

This came after Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba was reported as saying that the ministry would study why the majority of Malaysians had yet to register for the NIP. It was also reported that the ministry was targeting 70 to 80 per cent of the population to register for the NIP. So far, only 7.6 million out of 26.7 million had registered through the MySejahtera application.

Dr Kuljit said there were about 210 private hospitals in this country, of which 152 were members of APHM, including those located in main towns of Sabah and Sarawak.

He pointed out that there were 1.1 million admissions into private hospitals and 3.8 million out-patient visitations in 2018.

APHM was also hopeful that by assisting people with NIP registration at private hospitals, it would be able to commence the private vaccination programme in parallel with the NIP for economic frontliners as soon as more vaccines were procured.

In Kota Baru, nearly 10,000 Kelantanese in rural areas had registered for vaccination.

The registration exercise was carried out by the state Civil Defence Force (APM).

Kelantan APM director Zainuddin Hussin said the figure was recorded between March 20 and Monday, and carried out in five districts — Pasir Mas, Gua Musang, Machang, Pasir Puteh and Kuala Krai.

“So far, we have carried out the programme in five districts while the remaining five districts will start their programmes today (yesterday),” he said.

Some 10,000 members and volunteers from APM have been mobilised to help with the NIP.