MOH to improve IJN's discharge process for pensioners to govt hospitals

 

The Health Ministry is looking to improve the process of discharging pensioners and civil servants being treated at the National Heart Institute (IJN) into the care of the ministry’s hospitals and facilities.

At present, pensioners and civil servants discharged from IJN are given a referral letter for them to get an appointment on their own at public hospitals.

“However, improvements to the current system will be made.

“A mechanism where appointments are made from IJN to the chosen Health Ministry facilities will be studied and implemented. This will improve convenience to patients,” the ministry said in a reply to queries from Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini had enquired about processes of discharging patients with complex conditions from IJN to government facilities, to avoid them being bounced around from one facility to another.

IJN is government-owned but it runs as a private medical centre.

The government had in 2002 issued a circular requiring civil servants and pensioners being treated at IJN to be discharged back to the referring public hospital after 12 months of care as a cost-saving measure.

Pensioner’s woe

Last week, health news portal CodeBlue published a letter in which a pensioner lamented being discharged from IJN's care despite his highly complicated problem.

To make matters worse, the Health Ministry cardiac centre near his home neither had the expertise to handle his case nor did they have the medication he was on.

The pensioner said he had drug allergies and IJN had gone through several medications before finding ones that both worked and were safe for him.

The pensioner ended up being referred back to IJN but lamented that this would mean several more months of waiting for an appointment.

In its response to Malaysiakini, the Health Ministry stressed that pensioners and civil servants discharged from IJN to government facilities are those who are stable and not planned for further advanced investigations or cardiac procedures.

“In fact, there are patients that will be suitable to be followed up at Health Ministry hospitals without specialists or ministry health clinics.

“Conversely, when the need arises, whether for new patients or patients who were previously seen at IJN, a referral back to IJN can be done.

“We need to emphasise that many complex procedures are now available at Health Ministry cardiac centres. Hence, patients can discuss their preference on the cardiac centre with the doctors,” it said.

It added that for cases that are under IJN care, the duration of care depends on the complexity of each case and can be longer if clinically indicated.

It said that in paediatric cases, for example, this can be up to two years and three years for more complex cases. - Mkini