KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — The long-delayed review of private general practitioner (GP) consultation fees is now in the final stages of scrutiny by a high-level committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has submitted the fee review proposal outcome from the National Cost of Living Action Council (Naccol) to the Executive Committee, which will finalise the matter.
“The outcome from Naccol has already been presented by the MOH and brought to the Executive Committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi. We will continue to flesh it out in detail. That’s all I can announce for now,” Dzulkefly told reporters at the sidelines of the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) Conference here today.
“There’s no set date yet, but it will be in the near future. We will bring this matter forward in the near future because the Executive Committee, chaired by the deputy prime minister, will be refining the final touches of this (GP fee review).”
The health minister’s statement comes amid criticism from general practitioners and doctors’ associations over the decades-long stagnation of GP fees, currently set at RM10 to RM35 per consultation — unchanged since 1992.
Last week, the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia (FPMPAM) expressed “deep disappointment” over what it described as a broken promise, after Dzulkefly had previously said in early May that a fee review would be concluded and brought to Cabinet by early June.
Medical groups have called for a floor rate of RM60, without a ceiling. Earlier today, the Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia (MPCAM) proposed increasing GP consultation fees to a range of RM50 to RM80, with a three-year review mechanism, while keeping overall patient bills stable by lowering medicine mark-ups.
Dzulkefly did not confirm whether the Executive Committee’s upcoming deliberations would result in a formal Cabinet decision or whether MOH’s proposed fee structure — which has yet to be disclosed — would be adopted.
