Chua's statement a 'diversionary ploy'
Ajinder KaurPublished: Apr 27, 2001 7:10 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
Health Minister Chua Jui Meng's statement that multi-million ringgit healthcare negligence suits against the government is not in the interest of the nation as the people have to pay for the damages, is "a diversionary ploy", a healthcare activist told malaysiakini today.
"The issue at hand is transparency and accountability. Lawsuits sometimes turn out to be one of the few avenues for getting proper accounting, not just financially, but of the events themselves," said the coordinator of Citizen Health Initiative, Chan Chee Khoon.
Chan was responding to a front-page report in The Star today quoting the minister as saying that the trend would cause doctors to turn defensive and as a result perform numerous tests on patients, including those seeking minor treatment, just to eliminate any chance of being sued.
Chua added that the overly-cautious measure would make healthcare a costly affair, which our healthcare system could not afford.
Chan, who is also a social science lecturer in Universiti Sains Malaysia, said that most people who suffered from medical negligence at government health facilities would be satisfied with reasonable compensation for physical and mental trauma, and for costs of practical adjustments to continuing incapacity.
"Most important, I think, is an understanding of the circumstances leading to the incident, and clear-cut, responsible measures to minimise a recurrence of such events."
This, he said, is what is lacking in the country's health system.
"We have seen that with the 1997 Sarawak epidemic, the 1998/99 Nipah outbreak, and without the poor woman's misfortune (the recent HIV-contaminated blood transfusion case), few of us would have learned of the earlier Raub instance (where a Felda settler claimed that his late wife was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion at the Raub hospital in 1994)," Chan added.
In a recent incident, a housewife who was given HIV-contaminated blood by the Jitra Hospital during a blood transfusion last month, filed a RM100 million suit against the government and the hospital.
"The issue at hand is transparency and accountability. Lawsuits sometimes turn out to be one of the few avenues for getting proper accounting, not just financially, but of the events themselves," said the coordinator of Citizen Health Initiative, Chan Chee Khoon.
Chan was responding to a front-page report in The Star today quoting the minister as saying that the trend would cause doctors to turn defensive and as a result perform numerous tests on patients, including those seeking minor treatment, just to eliminate any chance of being sued.
Chua added that the overly-cautious measure would make healthcare a costly affair, which our healthcare system could not afford.
Chan, who is also a social science lecturer in Universiti Sains Malaysia, said that most people who suffered from medical negligence at government health facilities would be satisfied with reasonable compensation for physical and mental trauma, and for costs of practical adjustments to continuing incapacity.
"Most important, I think, is an understanding of the circumstances leading to the incident, and clear-cut, responsible measures to minimise a recurrence of such events."
This, he said, is what is lacking in the country's health system.
"We have seen that with the 1997 Sarawak epidemic, the 1998/99 Nipah outbreak, and without the poor woman's misfortune (the recent HIV-contaminated blood transfusion case), few of us would have learned of the earlier Raub instance (where a Felda settler claimed that his late wife was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion at the Raub hospital in 1994)," Chan added.
In a recent incident, a housewife who was given HIV-contaminated blood by the Jitra Hospital during a blood transfusion last month, filed a RM100 million suit against the government and the hospital.
"The issue at hand is transparency and accountability. Lawsuits sometimes turn out to be one of the few avenues for getting proper accounting, not just financially, but of the events themselves," said the coordinator of Citizen Health Initiative, Chan Chee Khoon.
Chan was responding to a front-page report in The Star today quoting the minister as saying that the trend would cause doctors to turn defensive and as a result perform numerous tests on patients, including those seeking minor treatment, just to eliminate any chance of being sued.
Chua added that the overly-cautious measure would make healthcare a costly affair, which our healthcare system could not afford.
Chan, who is also a social science lecturer in Universiti Sains Malaysia, said that most people who suffered from medical negligence at government health facilities would be satisfied with reasonable compensation for physical and mental trauma, and for costs of practical adjustments to continuing incapacity.
"Most important, I think, is an understanding of the circumstances leading to the incident, and clear-cut, responsible measures to minimise a recurrence of such events."
This, he said, is what is lacking in the country's health system.
"We have seen that with the 1997 Sarawak epidemic, the 1998/99 Nipah outbreak, and without the poor woman's misfortune (the recent HIV-contaminated blood transfusion case), few of us would have learned of the earlier Raub instance (where a Felda settler claimed that his late wife was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion at the Raub hospital in 1994)," Chan added.
In a recent incident, a housewife who was given HIV-contaminated blood by the Jitra Hospital during a blood transfusion last month, filed a RM100 million suit against the government and the hospital.
"The issue at hand is transparency and accountability. Lawsuits sometimes turn out to be one of the few avenues for getting proper accounting, not just financially, but of the events themselves," said the coordinator of Citizen Health Initiative, Chan Chee Khoon.
Chan was responding to a front-page report in The Star today quoting the minister as saying that the trend would cause doctors to turn defensive and as a result perform numerous tests on patients, including those seeking minor treatment, just to eliminate any chance of being sued.
Chua added that the overly-cautious measure would make healthcare a costly affair, which our healthcare system could not afford.
Chan, who is also a social science lecturer in Universiti Sains Malaysia, said that most people who suffered from medical negligence at government health facilities would be satisfied with reasonable compensation for physical and mental trauma, and for costs of practical adjustments to continuing incapacity.
"Most important, I think, is an understanding of the circumstances leading to the incident, and clear-cut, responsible measures to minimise a recurrence of such events."
This, he said, is what is lacking in the country's health system.
"We have seen that with the 1997 Sarawak epidemic, the 1998/99 Nipah outbreak, and without the poor woman's misfortune (the recent HIV-contaminated blood transfusion case), few of us would have learned of the earlier Raub instance (where a Felda settler claimed that his late wife was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion at the Raub hospital in 1994)," Chan added.
In a recent incident, a housewife who was given HIV-contaminated blood by the Jitra Hospital during a blood transfusion last month, filed a RM100 million suit against the government and the hospital.
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