PETALING JAYA: The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) has urged government hospitals treating patients for elective surgeries to refer their cases to private hospitals without delay.
APHM’s call follows an updated circular by the health ministry on guidelines and budgeting for government hospitals to outsource services for non Covid-19 patients to private hospitals .
The circular states that patients must first be referred to private hospitals by their doctors at public hospitals, based on their medical conditions. The treatment of non-Covid-19 patients in private hospitals will be funded by the government.
However, APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh has noted the low take-up for the referral programme, saying only a small number of cases have been referred to the private sector.
“We now hope that this referral will be carried out by the treating doctors in the public hospitals to the private hospitals without further delay, as postponement of elective procedures has been extensively stretched due to the Covid-19 pandemic,“ he said in a statement.
He said many patients have waited for months to get treated in the private hospitals.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah recently announced that elective surgeries and procedures in public hospitals around the Klang Valley would be reduced or postponed to make room for a spike in Covid-19 cases.
Kuljit said private hospitals in the country are prepared to assist the government in managing non-Covid-19 patients, but have limited manpower to accept more Covid-19 patients.
Currently, about 30 private hospitals in the Klang Valley are managing Covid-19 patients both in normal wards and ICUs.-FMT