PUNCAK ALAM: The Health Ministry is shortlisting private hospitals to outsource patients to ease the waiting time at public hospitals.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the outsourcing programme would include four disciplines: cardiac surgery; cardiology services; nephrology; and radiology and imaging.
This was in response to Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh, who had reiterated its offer to help the government carry out cardiac surgeries, in view of the lack of cardiothoracic surgeons at public hospitals.
Dr Dzulkefly said: "The waiting time for elective surgeries, which are non-emergency cases, is from six to 12 months, sometimes more.
"We have an allocation for outsourcing. This shows that we cannot handle the number of patients, so we are outsourcing them.
"It's not only for cardiothoracic surgeries, but also cardiology services, nephrology, and radio and imaging.
"We were given an allocation of RM144 million for outsourcing and we have given an opportunity to private hospitals to request proposals.
"We have received about 95 responses from private hospitals on their readiness to receive our patients," he said after the "Pek Kasih Mama" launch here.
He added that the ministry would shortlist and finalise the list of hospitals to outsource as soon as possible.
Malaysia was struggling with a shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons at public hospitals, leading to a long waiting list for surgery for heart patients.
In May, Dr Kuljit said private hospitals in the Klang Valley were prepared to help patients awaiting cardiac surgeries at the Sultan Idris Shah Hospital Heart Centre in Serdang, Selangor.
He said patients who needed urgent cardiac surgery could be referred to private hospitals if public hospitals were unable to accommodate them.
On another matter, Dr Dzulkefly reiterated British high commissioner Ailsa Terry's statement on the parallel pathway programme at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
He said there was no issue with the programme as it was recognised by the British General Medical Council (GMC), which confirmed that Malaysian parallel pathway cardiothoracic specialists could apply for registration as specialists.
Cardiothoracic surgeons trained under the parallel pathway programme linked to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh were in limbo after the Malaysian Medical Council refused to list them on the National Specialist Register (NSR).
Following this, four of them had filed a suit against the council seeking a declaration that they were entitled to be listed on the NSR.
