MMA petitions to raise fees of private doctors

The Malaysian Medical Association says costs have gone up by 10 times over the past five years.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association has started an online petition urging the federal government to adjust the fees of general practitioners without delay, saying it has become costly to run a clinic.

In the petition on change.org, the MMA said the expenses in operating a private clinic had risen by more than 10 times over the past 5 years.

Nearly 500 clinics had closed during this period, and many surviving clinics “find it a daily challenge to survive.”

The MMA said that it had previously recommended that GP fees be increased from RM10-RM35 per consultation to RM30-RM125.

After years of negotiation and impact studies, the government in 2013 had approved the adjustment of GP fees but the new rates were yet to be gazetted, because of administrative reasons.

“Endless stakeholders meetings, consultations, impact analysis including presentations to the Pakatan Harapan government and the National Council of Living Costs (NACCOL) were carried out and the current decision by the government is still pending.

“Hundreds of man-hours and resources were spent to address a simple administrative anomaly,” said the petition, which was created on Thursday.

As of 10.30pm tonight, 4,132 people have signed the petition.

The petition comes less than 10 days after the MMA hit out at Putrajaya over its “indecisiveness” in handling the harmonisation of fees for GPs after NACCOL requested for another round of studies. - FMT