KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) says Emergency Ordinance (EO) should be used responsibly and not for "bullying or twisting the arms of the private healthcare sector" in order to use its resources.
MMA president Professor Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said the EO should instead be utilised for collaborative efforts in finding and hastening solutions for Covid-19 pandemic instead.
"The government should use this time to hasten solutions by cutting red tape and removing regulatory burdens for seamless collaborative implementation, instead of threatening to fine them if they do not wish to cooperate in the pandemic management.
"Threats and bullying are not the way to go and it will most certainly not gain the respect of the people.
"They should instead go back to the drawing board, and for one and for all, for the sake of our beloved country and the rakyat, truly implement a whole of society and whole of government approach," he said in a statement today.
Dr Subramaniam claimed 7,000 Health Ministry trained general practitioners were sidelined from the start of the pandemic and throughout most of the battle in 2020.
"They have been consistently offering their services from the very beginning of the pandemic.
"It must also be noted that most of the private hospitals are owned by the government-linked companies (GLCs), where the government as a shareholder are also the beneficiary of its profits and dividends.
"The government should stop playing big brother after not being able to contain the pandemic but start listening to feedback from the ground and regard private healthcare as its key partner," he said.
Dr Subramaniam said the association has been regularly advising the government on the important role of general practitioners in the pandemic.
"In fact, numerous letters have been sent to the Health Ministry and meetings with the government officials have been sat, seems to have fallen on deaf ears," he said.
"Previously, many general practitioners were reluctant to attend to upper respiratory infection cases for fear of closure of their clinics and vague quarantine criteria from Health Ministry.
"We hoped for the government to take time understanding about the private healthcare ecosystem and provide clear guidelines and directions in policies.
"We also hoped for the government to roped in more general practitioners to be effective and more involved in the policy making, especially in managing Covid-19 in primary care.
"Desktop analysis policies will more than likely to result in challenge during implementation, that will lead to failure and waste of resources," he said.
Yesterday, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government could acquire the use of private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients.
The minister said the government could even use its buildings as quarantine centres to treat Stage 1 and Stage 2 patients if needed, as well as private hospitals' laboratories for testing as well.
Hospitals, he said, may face fines of up to RM5 million while its operator may also be jailed if they refused to extend their cooperation.