Ministry denies endangering patients by reusing medical devices

The Health Ministry has denied it endangered patients at public hospitals by reusing single-use medical device.

Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah was responding to a Free Malaysia Today report which claimed that this was being practised at public hospitals due to budget constraints.

Noor Hisham said all consumables and single-use medical devices utilised for patients with blood-borne diseases are disposed of after being used.

However, he said there are certain single-use medical devices that can be used after being cleansed through proper procedures and are governed by specific guidelines.

"There are some single-use medical devices that are used more than once, whereby it has to undergo reprocessing via thorough cleansing and sterilisation processes before it can be reused for few times.

"This has been long practised in Malaysia and it has no correlation with health financing or budget issue," he said in a statement today.

Noor Hisham said this reprocessing practice is a norm even in private health facilities in Malaysia, as well as in developed countries.

For example, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) listed 229 single-use devices known to be processed or considered for reprocessing.

"The Medical Device Authority (MDA) has conducted a preliminary survey to look into this practice in Malaysian public and private hospitals. Interestingly, the finding revealed that 37 percent out of 40 private hospitals surveyed, reuse and reprocessed the single-use devices, similar to the practice in government hospitals," he said.

Noor Hisham said the Health Ministry strongly refuted claims that public hospitals had endangered the lives of patients and stressed that his ministry has always upheld and prioritised patient safety and the standard of healthcare protection.

"The Health Ministry would like to reiterate its full commitment towards delivering high-quality healthcare services at reasonable cost and accessible to all.

"Patient safety will remain at the core of all Health Ministry services and will not be compromised," he said.

Noor Hisham added that the ministry had also made a huge step forward when the Medical Device Act came into effect in 2012, whereby medical devices are now better regulated in Malaysia.

"The Medical Device Authority (MDA) is in the process of drafting a holistic guideline and policy on reprocessing of a medical device, by drawing expert opinions and best practices as practised in United States, Canada, Australia and European Union nations for reprocessing of a single-use medical device.

"This is an iterative process led by MDA and will take into consideration all kind of factors, with the main focus on patient safety," he said. -Mkini