KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — ProtectHealth Corporation has prohibited private general practitioners (GPs) from advertising Covid-19 vaccination services, despite recruiting them for the national inoculation drive.
The company owned by the Ministry of Health (MOH) said previously that more than 2,500 private medical practitioners have registered with ProtectHealth to administer coronavirus vaccines in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK).
“ProtectHealth does not deny the involvement of private medical practitioners in the second and third phases of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme,” ProtectHealth said in a statement yesterday.
“However, the act of getting a list of vaccine recipients from advertising on social media or on short messaging platforms like WhatsApp is prohibited. This can cause confusion and misunderstanding in the community.
“In line with that, ProtectHealth requests private medical practitioners to immediately halt all forms of advertising to get a list of vaccine recipients.”
ProtectHealth added that people who have signed up for jabs would be informed about the location of their vaccination site (PPV) through MySejahtera, which could be either at an MOH facility or a private health facility.
“Registration of vaccination should be with MySejahtera. Private clinics can submit their existing patients’ list to MySejahtera to influence the allotment of vaccination venue. But no guarantee. PPV could be at government or private facilities,” ProtectHealth tweeted.
PICK is currently targeting high-risk individuals like people above 60, those with underlying health conditions, and people with disabilities in Phase Two. The third phase for the general public has not yet opened.
As of May 11, only about 1.2 million people have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, or 3.6 per cent of the total population.
