I refer to the letters by Pak Jalleh and Dr Chris Anthony on the Private Health Care Facilities and Services Regulations 2006 Act. Both of them allude to some sinister motive for its introduction. Pak Jalleh is quite right when he says that the Ministry of Health has introduced new money-spinning regulations and privatised entities to govern a whole range of activities that were quite efficiently done before Mahathirism was introduced into every aspect of the government.

What sinister motives can there be? Going by previous experiences, this new Act is another money-making adventure which is going to make some people rich. Take, for example, the enforcement division that will be set up to oversee and enforce the new law. You get no prizes for guessing what this will lead to.

Is there any tie up with equipment sellers now that all clinics must have ECG machines, defibrillators and other expensive equipment? I wonder who has been given the contract to supply all these new requirements. In addition, do we have enough instructors to teach basic life support courses besides training on how to use these newly-purchased machines?

Believe me, not all doctors know CPR or know how to use defibrillators, let alone intubate a patient in an emergency. Though CPR skill is expected of all doctors, these skills are easily forgotten if not used regularly. It would have made sense if the law had also mandated annual refresher certification in CPR.

The MOH is trying to pass the buck of providing emergency services to the general practitioners. If this is so, then MOH should provide all the equipment needed and maintain them at the private clinics. But am I revealing another possibility for leakages in terms of the lucrative contracts to supply these machines?

Someone has written that it is only the GPs who are agitated while the private hospitals are keeping quite. Why should the private hospitals make noise? They would like to see fewer new GP clinics being set up and the old ones closed so that they can corner the lucrative primary health care as well.

Nearly all private hospitals are corporate-owned and today there are only two main players in the country. The few stand-alone hospitals would soon capitulate and sell their facilities to either one of these groups. One of these two groups, controlled by a foreign company, is already being targetted at the high level. I would not be surprised if the remaining group, which is a state-linked GLC, swallows the other group creating a virtual monopoly.

The private hospitals have rejected the GPs' request to stop providing primary healthcare in their hospitals and have reserved the right to provide these services to their clients. The corporate private hospitals are able to afford all the new requirements under the new Act as they would already have them in their hospitals anyway.

The ultimate aim of these hospitals is to make profits in primary care by employing doctors rather than allowing them to start their own independent general practices.

Another sinister motive could be that the new tough, expensive and draconian regulations would prevent government-service doctors from resigning and setting up their own practices. I would not be surprised if this was the recommendation by one of the numerous consultants employed by the MOH to study the healthcare situation in Malaysia.

It would be silly to reject the new law completely. The spirit of the law is laudable and it is meant to protect the consumers of private healthcare. However, the way the regulations have been drafted and the punitive measures prescribed are totally unacceptable and need revision.

I hope good sense will prevail in the MOH and that they would seriously consider the objections raised by the various groups of doctors. There is no loss of face to the drafters if they concede that they have made mistakes in the regulations and agree to amend the law.

Indeed, they would appear to be responsive to the plight of the people who are affected by these laws.