KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Dzulkefly Ahmad clarified today that the government did not decide against raising private general practitioners’ (GPs) consultation fees, but was simply discussing the quantum of increase.
The health minister said the National Cost of Living Action Council (NACCOL) has already discussed the matter, and the Health Ministry would now present the issue again at the Cabinet.
“The issue is not yes or no; it’s a quantum,” Dzulkefly told reporters today after launching a “Save The Green Lung” campaign by Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Lung Cancer Network Malaysia.
“It has taken this long because there was a need to do financial impact studies. Those studies have been completed and were presented at the recent NACCOL meeting. This matter will now be presented to the Cabinet who will make a decision.”
NACCOL last week declined to harmonise private clinic GPs’ consultation fees with their hospital counterparts, pending further studies on its financial impact to the public. Most GPs work in clinics, not hospitals.
The government committee had ordered the Health Ministry and the Malaysian Medical Association to conduct yet another study, even though two regulatory impact analyses and three stakeholders’ engagements have already been conducted under both the previous Barisan Nasional and current Pakatan Harapan administrations.
Some 7,000 private clinic GPs throughout the country have been calling for their consultation fees to be raised from the 1992 rate of RM10 to RM35, to the scale of RM30 to RM125 earned by their counterparts in private hospitals.