PSM treasurer Soh Sook Hwa said the coalition of Gabungan Membantah Penswastaan Perhidmatan Kesihatan had received a lot of complaints from patients and the public on the matter.
“We believe that by implementing the PPBP scheme, it will attract more specialist doctors to the scheme and that will in turn affect the quality of treatment given to patients who can’t afford the extra fees under the regular specialist wards,” she said outside the HKL outpatient treatment department today.
Soh was commenting on the move by major public hospitals to implement the PPBP for patients who can afford to pay for specialist services as well as for foreigners, as part of the government’s efforts to retain specialists in the health service.
Deputy Health Minister Hilmi Yahaya said the programme would not impact the people as they would still pay only RM1 for medical treatment.
Currently, the PPBP scheme is carried out at the Selayang Hospital and Putrajaya Hospital. The health ministry is planning to introduce another eight hospitals nationwide under the scheme.
Several other PSM members joined Soh in distributing pamphlets to patients to create more awareness on the PPBP at HKL.
The pamphlets are also being distributed nationwide at the eight hospitals which are due to provide the PPBP service.
Soh said that it’s crucial that the public be made aware of what the PPBP is all about.
“The reason we want the postponement is because we want the government to study the impact of the PPBP.
“We also want the government to set up a commission for public hospitals under the health ministry that will follow the same pay scheme as IJN for the doctors.”
Soh is also urging the government to put on hold the development of new private hospitals until the PPBP issue is settled.