COMMENT | Private wings in govt hospitals a pathetic response

COMMENT | PSM is extremely disappointed to hear from Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad that the government is thinking of opening private wings in government hospitals under “Rakan MOH”.

The previous avatar of this retrogressive plan – then termed the Full Paying Patient (FPP) scheme – was first announced by the then-BN government in 2007.

PSM then rallied a coalition of NGOs and activists to object to this plan by organising a series of protests including at the four government hospitals in 2011 that were selected to expand this scheme.

These PSM-civil society protests resulted in the postponement of the further implementation of the scheme for a couple of years. Still, after that, the government implemented the FPP scheme without fanfare in 11 general hospitals.

PSM rallied people against the FPP scheme because we genuinely felt it would be bad for ordinary citizens.

The problem with our government hospitals is...