The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) said it believes there is no real shortage of doctors, just a "misdistribution of resources" that plagues the country’s health sector, said a Bernama report.

                                                

NONE Citing MMA president Dr David KL Quek's 'President’s Column' in the association's latest bulletin, Bernama reported Dr Quek as saying that logistical problems resulting from the reluctance of doctors to be relocated to a more rural or remote location despite improved perks has remained a challenge for the Ministry of Health.

    

Nevertheless, MMA believed that a proper and fair deployment policy should be initiated to overcome the problem.

    

Lauding the government’s move in setting up 1Malaysia clinics for the urban poor, Dr Quek said it is in line with the caring concept.

If the 1Malaysia clinics were now part of the expanded public healthcare system, he said further, then even more public sector doctors would be willing to be deployed on rotation or as part of a training initiative for an enhanced family practice or general practice vocation, he added.

However, while the MMA supported better, affordable and more accessible healthcare facilities for the public, the announcement that the 1Malaysia clinics were manned by medical assistants and nurses took many doctors by surprise.

'Hundreds' of complaints over 1Msia clinics   

Dr Quek said that initially his personal opinion was that just 50 clinics around the country would have very little impact on any doctor's rice bowl.

But he eventually came to see this view as wrong as the government’s move had caused much anxiety and confusion among general practitioners.

    

"I have received, literally, hundreds of angry and condemning SMSs, and faxes and email demanding that the MMA address the issue which they felt had unfairly impacted their services.

"Almost every doctor who had complained believed that this approach of using clinics to be run by medical assistants and nurses was wrong in law," he said.

    

Dr Quek emphasised that the MMA strongly felt that all the 1Malaysia clinics should be manned by doctors in line with the Medical Act which dictated that all medical and health clinics be run only by registered doctors.

So far, the government has set up 50 1Malaysia clinics in the urban areas to provide basic services like treating minor ailments and monitoring of diabetes and hypertension.