I read with great concern the health minister's recent warning of a looming dengue epidemic after a dramatic spike in cases in the last three weeks, saying further that the situation could become 'uncontrollable' in the future. The minister finally seems to be moving away from petty issues and focusing now on the pertinent issues that trouble the nation's healthcare system. What indeed has the heath minister and his director-general achieved since they took office?

One of the first things the ministry got embroiled in for no reason whatsoever was the de-recognition of the Crimea State University Medical programme, throwing hundreds of medical students into a quandary, leaving many parents anguished about their children's futures not to mention their hard-earned savings.

The subsequent quarrel in Parliament almost split the Barisan National. And for what reason? Just so to satisfy the DG's and the Malaysian Medical Council's egomaniacal obsession for standards rather then need. The situation could have been diplomatically handled by either giving adequate notice to derecognise CSMU or make CSMU graduates do a three-year housemanship programme instead of one. But it almost turned out to be an explosive political bombshell.

However, a good part of the minister's contribution to healthcare must be his running battles with private practitioners in the implementation of the highly controversial Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Regulations 2006 Act which was passed through Parliament so sneakily that even BN MPs didn't get a chance to go through the details.

While Chua Soi Lek and Ismail Merican were trying to turn the screws on their fellow doctors, traditional medicine sellers merrily kept selling antibiotics, cough mixtures in Puchong and beauty parlours keep injecting botox in Petaling Street. Taxpayers have to endure this comedy while patients were still lying in GH Klang. The ministry's Human Resources Department, after all, doesn't know where else to look for staff to man its billion-ringgit hospitals at Serdang and Sungai Buloh.

Is this the best they have to offer? Public healthcare is critical to the nation's development. Haven't we learnt anything from the Nipah virus episode where the mortality was so high and fast that victims didn't even have time or money to buy coffins? If bird flu or dengue strikes at the nation's heart, the Nipah and Sars outbreak would seem like a picnic in the park.

The ministry is embroiled in petty issues that greater priorities like the poor access to specialist care in hospitals, the prolonged waiting time for surgery, the still unanswered mortality and morbidity rates in government hospitals, the virtually absent teaching or educational opportunities for private practitioners in government hospitals and the doubtful strategies concerning the ever looming presence of dengue, hand, foot and mouth disease, bird flu and the ballooning incidence of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus in young Malaysians are all left unattended.

The ministry should 'turun padang' and work aggressively with local councils to demolish abandoned buildings and clean up rubbish dumps, rather than blaming the weather or God for the man-made problem of a dengue epidemic.