Star=13 Jun 2008....Malu La Ini Macam

Docs shy away from service at govt hospitals

By CHRISTINA KOH and ONG YEE TING

IPOH: The Health Ministry has received dismal response from private doctors after its call for them to volunteer their services at government medical facilities, said minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai.
Disappointed, Liow said only one doctor from the private sector had come forward since he made the call a month ago, making it just eight since the move was introduced half a year ago.
He doubted that the low take-up rate was because the Government was offering the private practitioners an allowance of up to RM80 an hour.
“When I made the statement a month ago, many private doctors praised the move because they would be able to come forward, not for the money but for the challenge of the job.
“Perhaps many of them don’t know where to sign up for the scheme,” speculated Liow, who urged those interested to do so at the ministry website (www.moh.gov.my).
He said the country was still facing a severe shortage of doctors in government , with only 60% or 13,000 posts filled so far.
This meant that the doctor to patient ratio was 1 to 1,145, when the ratio for developed countries was 1 to 600, said Liow.
In George Town later, Liow said the ministry had appealed to the European Union (EU) for more time to improve the standard and quality of fishery products exported to Europe.
Currently, Malaysia exports about RM1.5bil of fishery products to Europe annually.
Liow said the ministry would hold a dialogue with the exporters on Monday before tabling the issue at the next Cabinet meeting.
He was commenting on a report that the EU might impose a possible ban as seafood products from Malaysia had failed to meet the EU health standards. The EU’s Food and Veterinary Office representatives had visited seafood processing companies and facilities supporting the industry here in April.
In a random check, six out of nine exporters were found to be lagging behind in the health standards and practices set by the EU.
They have been blacklisted, with an immediate effect, from exporting their products to Europe, said Liow, adding the government had also de-listed the six .
“We are committed in doing our part to ensure the exporters abide by the EU regulations,” he told a press conference after attending the presentation of Joint Commission International accreditation for Penang Adventist Hospital here yesterday.