KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s upcoming town hall meeting on June 11 has received immense interest from general practitioners (GPs) across the country.
According to the Ministry of Health, around 1,153 GPs have already registered for the townhall which will be held at the Dewan Seri Endon in Putrajaya.
Unfortunately, a large number of interested GPs are either unable to be present on that day or did not make it in time for the registration cut-off date which was last Monday, May 27.
The event has been scheduled on a weekday which has been criticised by some as being inconvenient for those running small clinics and who are unable to arrange for locums. Previous town halls did not require pre-registration.
Due to the large amount of interest, the Ministry is planning to broadcast a live streaming of the proceedings on its Facebook account.
Dzulkefly said recently that the Cabinet has suggested that the National Cost of Living Action Council first discuss his proposal to raise private GPs’ consultation fees, before deciding on the matter.
He said he had proposed to the Cabinet last April 24 to amend Schedule 7 of the Private Health Care Facilities and Services Act 2006, in order to harmonise the consultation fees of GPs operating shop-lot practices (RM10 to RM35) with the rates earned by their hospital-based counterparts under Schedule 13 of the 2013 amendment to that law (RM35 to RM125).
The private GP fees have remained stagnant at the current levels for 27 years since 1992.