I refer to the letter Medical professionalism on the slide .

I disagree with the writer. Our health system is indeed one of the best in the world. Please tell me which other country can offer public healthcare service with such a wide coverage? In Malaysia, all citizens are assured that they can get almost free treatment and healthcare services even for specialist care or cancer treatment.

In East Malaysia, we have helicopter services which can be called by doctors in district hospital to transfer patients and for this the patients need not even pay a sen (even though it cost the government RM3,000 per trip).

This cheap healthcare is also enjoyed by foreign citizens as well. One just needs to go to any government women and children's clinic in Kuala Lumpur and you will see many foreigners, especially Indonesians and Burmese, who come to enjoy antenatal care services free of charge. You will never see this in any other country - not even in Singapore.

In Malaysia, we treat first and ask for payment later even though patients haven't made a deposit (the same for foreigners). In Singapore, for example, if you do not have the money, you can't get any treatment for cancer. In Malaysia, we will perform the surgery and give chemotherapy to any patient (regardless of nationality) and then only ask for payment. The patient can even choose not to pay.

Government service doctors will proceed with whatever treatment or surgery without confirming whether payment has been made or not. You will not get such treatment in any country in the world - not in the UK or the US and certainly not in Singapore.

A few unfortunate incidents do not reflect the true spirit of Malaysian doctors. Many of us who are willing to stay in government service because we want to serve our 'rakyat'. With the kind of doctor-patient ration we have here, no country in the world can ensure perfect healthcare. Medical mistakes do happen even in First World countries.

It is true that our health system is not perfect. But given the limited resources and manpower, whatever we achieved so far is certainly amazing. Mistakes do happen but we will learn from them and try to improve our healthcare system over the time.

In Malaysia, healthcare is 99.9 percent subsidised by the government. The poor, the rich and even foreigners need not worry about healthcare services because they can go to a public hospital anytime to seek treatment and hospitalisation for RM1 (they can even refuse to pay and get treatment). Can a Malaysian do this in Singapore?