In the first part of this article, I talked about one of two difficult healthcare regulation issues that the health ministry took on in recent months.
To the credit of Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, the objections were heard and the amendment removed pending review, with the minister assuring that such extreme punitive measures would not be put into future amendments to the act. The act specifying standards for healthcare facilities and services is the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act , enacted in 2006 to ensure the integrity of healthcare professionals, quality of care and patient safety.
To be fair, the doctor opted for a jail sentence of three months instead of paying the RM120,000 fine which he said he could not afford. Criminalisation is defined as the act of turning an activity into a criminal offence, or a person into a criminal by making what he or she is doing illegal. Thankfully, now that the proposed amendment to the Poisons Act has been shelved, doctors will not be put behind bars if they do not write prescriptions for patients who request them.