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STOP Government from killing public
health system. by Ronnie Liu (Petaling Jaya, Monday):
DAP and other members of the Coalition Against Privatization of Health
Systems (Gabungan Membantah Penswastaan Sistem Kesihatan) are
very disappointed with the Health Director General's statement (NST
8/1/06) that the Government will allow specialists to see private
patients after office hours in Selayang and Putra Jaya Hospitals by
March 2006. In addition government specialists are also tasked with teaching
the housemen, the trainee specialists, the nurses and other
paramedical staff, as well as organizing quality control and
system-review exercises. They are already over-worked and are often
not able to supervise the young doctors under them closely enough.
Allowing private practice after office hours cannot but lead to the
greater neglect of the patients in the third class wards! We appreciate that government doctors work hard, and in
difficult conditions - we want them to be paid better. The pay-scale in IJN is much better than that in the Health
Ministry, but this is not due to supplementary income derived from
private practice after office hours but by a better salary structure.
DAP would like the Ministry of Health to set up a separate Service
Commission for Health Care Workers and offer them a better salary
structure - something similar to the IJN scale. The BN government spends only 1.9% of GDP on health care provision,
whereas the WHO has advised an outlay of 5% of GDP for developing
countries. (UK spends 9.8% of GDP on health!) An outlay on health is an investment in our people - and as the
government itself often says our human resources are the nation's most
precious resources! The BN government is reneging on this social contract - wages are
being held down through the massive importation of foreign workers
while previously subsidized services are being deliberately run down
in an attempt to get people to go and buy these services in the
private sector! Or they are being privatized as is the case of water.
(13/02/2006)
*
Ronnie
Liu Tian Khiew, DAP NGO Bureau Chief |