GPs have a role as Klang Valley wraps up vaccination campaign

 

The claim of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners' Association (FPMPAM) that private doctors are being “cut off” from administering the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines in the Klang Valley is “not true and misleading”, according to ProtectHealth Sdn Bhd.

A spokesperson told Malaysiakini that following the conclusion of the Operation Surge Capacity in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, the administration of first doses in the Klang Valley is considered complete.

As such, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) has decided that those who are still not vaccinated in the Klang Valley will complete their vaccinations on a walk-in basis at designated vaccine administration centres (PPV).

“As such, all PPVs, except for dedicated PPVs managing non-Malaysians, are not doing the first dose this week in Selangor and KL, not just general practitioners,” the spokesperson said last night.

Despite this, he said ProtectHealth – a Health Ministry-owned non-profit body that is liaising the private sector’s involvement in the National Immunisation Programme - is still onboarding and recruiting more GPs for the programme.

“For vaccination as a public health measure, GPs are very essential to ensure we can mop up the rest of the population.

“We need to continue getting more GPs onboard. More GPs will be recruited nationwide.

“There will potentially be booster doses, and new registrants, new converts from those with anti-vaccine views, pregnant mothers who delivered, those we missed, those who newly turned 18, and when we reduce age group. GPs are our defence bastion.

“Eventually, and soon, the big PPVs will close, and GPs will need to be ready to have the capacity,” the spokesperson said.

ProtectHealth also disputed FPMPAM’s claims that it costs RM30 to vaccinate each person at a PPV, hence making GPs more cost-effective at RM14 per person.

The spokesperson said GPs are paid RM14 per person, regardless of whether the vaccination is performed at a mega-PPV or at their own clinics.

Yesterday, FPMPAM president Dr Steven Chow claimed that ProtectHealth had abruptly barred GPs from participating in NIP from administering first vaccine doses.

Chow said this has left GPs in a lurch after having invested time, money and resources to enable their clinics to participate in NIP.

He also claimed that one doctor had complained that he had a list of 500 patients who have indicated that they would be having their vaccine from his clinic.

“This has caused a lot of inconveniences to patients especially, the senior and the elderly ones, who now again have to travel to the big PPV centres and endure the inconvenience of an uncertain waiting time and increased risk of infection.

“We are again receiving reports that patients from Shah Alam are being sent to Dengkil, and some from Puchong to Shah Alam. To start with, GP-based vaccination was one of the solutions for this issue,” he said.

Malaysiakini has contacted the CITF on this issue and is awaiting a response.

Under Operation Surge Capacity, all Klang Valley residents who have registered for vaccination would get at least their first dose by Aug 1, in an effort to curb the Covid-19 outbreak in the region.

By the end of the operation, NIP coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that 96.7 percent of the adult population in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor have received at least one dose of the vaccine, though Bukit Gasing state assemblyperson Rajiv Rishyakaran has disputed the figure. - Mkini