Of doctors and doctoring

 

Three senior doctors in the state were among 32 people arrested in a major swoop by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over their alleged links to a cartel said to have been falsifying PERKESO disability claims. - NSTP/MIKAIL ONG

DOCTORING, in the sense of giving medical treatment, is what we expect doctors to do. But some doctors, as we have come to know, are given to doctoring in the second sense: practising deceit.

If Tuesday's arrests of three senior doctors allegedly linked to a cartel involved in falsifying Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) disability claims in Penang are anything to go by, the moral fever among some of the medical professionals in government and private hospitals there must be high.

If three doctors are three too many, wait till the arrest of a fourth one. What is worse, Perkeso claims fraud involving doctors isn't a new affliction.

A news portal quoted Senator Dr Lingeshwaran R. Arunasalam as having told the Dewan Negara that between 2018 and 2022 there were 683 fraudulent withdrawals amounting to some RM43 million.

One doctor, who has since been dismissed, had 16 fraudulent withdrawals to his name. Call it serial doctoring, in the second sense, of course. 

Are the recent arrests the tip of the iceberg? Hard to tell, but when deceit acquires the size of a cartel, it is likely to be. We leave that to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to size it up.

But a question needs to be asked: why do senior doctors doctor documents for money when they earn decent salaries? There is only one answer. Greed.

For the greedy, no amount of money is enough. As the saying goes, there is sufficiency in the world for a man's need, but not for man's greed.

Put them on a salary of RM20,000, RM50,000 or RM100,000 a month, they will hunt for more.

These doctors are ideal targets of cartels, if they are not themselves the kingpins. Cartels love the greedy, and the greedy either form one or love to be part of one.

But they will soon learn that greed has a great fall waiting for them. The job they studied so hard for will be gone forever.

Next will be the shame of imprisonment and all the humiliation that comes with it.

Greed doesn't only destroy the deceitful doctor, but his innocent family, too. This is humiliation most unfair.

Being a doctor is a privilege to better the lives of others, not to destroy them, including one's own.

Unfortunately, deceit such as doctoring documents can't be legislated out of existence. But it can be minimised by robust governance.

We are sure that if proper governance was in place at the government and private hospitals, the likelihood of fraudulent claims getting through would be very low.

If media reports are right, some of the fraudulent claims were made by Perkeso members with no disabilty to show at all. This is mind boggling.

How could oversight be this bad? Didn't the orthopaedist's approval pass through another level of review at least? Now, hospitals, both public and private, will have no choice but to introduce a few more layers of review before approving the disability claims.

Perkeso, too, may have to tighten its claims approval process. It can't afford to allow such improper diversion of public funds.

The unfortunate outcome of all this will be delay in the approval of genuine disability claims. Call it collateral damage. - NST