PSM: Freeze new private hospital projects to curb brain drain

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has urged the government to freeze the new private hospital projects as a temporary measure to avoid losing government's specialist doctors to the private healthcare industry.

"Public hospitals have many patients but many of the specialist doctors are with the private hospitals," said PSM central committee member Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj.

"Whenever a new hospital is opened, they will come and ‘steal’ the specialist doctors from the general hospital," he told media at the Ministry of Health, in Putrajaya.

"We propose to the government to freeze new private hospital projects. Don't allow more private hospitals to be constructed. We call upon all states to refrain (from approving new private hospital projects).

"The ban can be lifted once we increase the number of specialist doctors in general hospitals," added the former Sungai Siput parliamentarian.

Jeyakumar was representing his party in the submission of a memorandum to Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Dzulkefly was reportedly saying the ministry faced a shortage of specialists in the field of oncology and geriatric care. He said the that the ratio of doctors to patients was disproportionate.

Besides proposing a freeze on new private hospital projects, PSM also urged the government to build a second general hospital at major towns as the current ones are facing serious capacity constraints.

PSM also urged the government hospitals to charge foreigners the same fees as those paid by local patients, particularly those who seek treatment for tuberculosis. He said the higher fees had deterred foreigners from seeking treatment in public hospitals.

The government can collect the fees from the levy and if necessary, the government can even raise the levy to foot their medical bills, according to PSM.

Also present were PSM deputy chairperson M. Saraswathy, secretary-general A Sivarajan, central committee member S. Arutchelvan. -Mkini