“The ministry will ensure that specialists in government hospitals treat patients who cannot pay before seeing to patients who opt for the scheme.

“Therefore, there is no case of neglect of patients who cannot afford to make the payment because the doctor must give priority to their core duty,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here today.

He was responding to allegations of possible neglect of patients in government hospitals who could not afford the scheme, which is to be implemented in eight more government hospitals in January.

Currently, this scheme is available at the Selayang Hospital and Putrajaya Hospital and will be expanded to general hospitals in Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Temerloh, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Klang and Seremban.

Hilmi also gave the assurance that the quality of healthcare for patients at government hospitals would not be affected by the implementation of the scheme.

Through the scheme, specialists in government hospitals have certain control over the number of paying patients but it should not exceed half of those who cannot afford to pay, he said.

According to him, it was hoped that the implementation of the scheme would prevent the migration of doctors from government hospitals to private hospitals that offered better salaries.

“With this scheme, we provide opportunities for specialists at government hospitals to earn additional income to match the salary they could earn in private hospitals.

It is also to address the issue of the resignation of specialists in government hospitals as every year, nearly 150 specialists resign while only 400 new doctors enter the service,” he added.

The FPP was introduced in 2007 and from the money collected from each surgery or medical process, 40% goes to the hospital and the remainder to the specialist.

However, the FPP only caters to 30% of the total patients in hospitals and the price is half of that at private hospitals.