They say just like much of the health system in the country, they too have been put under unprecedented pressure.

President of the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia, Dr Kuljit Singh, said it is not fair to threaten the sector with fines as they are doing their best to test as many people as possible to help the government and the country, and said an open dialogue would be more productive.

“We are always open to discussions with the government to identify the problems so that we can find solutions that suit us and the government,” he told FMT.

He said it was not the intention of clinics to withhold or delay results, but said it was possible that the facilities may have difficulty reporting the large number of cases quickly as they lacked the manpower to manage the load.

“We will surely look into this problem. We are doing our level best to help the government.

“We’ll be happy to sit down with them to discuss and solve any issues for the sake of the people and the country.”

Dr Steven Chow, president of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia, agreed, stating the government should not be so quick to lay blame on the hospitals and clinics.

He added that it was likely that labs were being overwhelmed by test samples.

“With such a massive volume of tests, it is not surprising that the labs will need time to confirm the positive tests.

“You cannot expect the hospitals or clinics to submit results that are not verified. It is our opinion that this is the reason for the backlog.”

This morning, Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari warned that the state health department will begin issuing fines to clinics and private hospitals in the state for late reporting, stressing they must be reported on the day they are detected through the public health laboratory information system.

He said the department had explained that the spike yesterday of 3,126 cases was due to a backlog of cases from the screening of factory workers, screenings in prisons and also screenings in clinics and private hospitals that were not reported directly or in “real-time”.

Chow added that if real-time information is desired, this would only be  possible if the National Security Council opts to accept the results of point of care antigen rapid test kits (RTK-Ag).

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