The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has raised the alarm over indiscriminate blood tests being provided to the public by non-regulated bodies.

These tests, which include routine checks for cancer markers, are often offered at a discounted rate in shopping malls and other places. The MMA claims that the tests are being used to further sell unnecessary products or treatments.

Private laboratories continue to offer these tests in an unregulated setting due to the fact that the Pathology Laboratory Act, which was first mooted in 1983 and passed in 2007, is still yet to be finalised and implemented, it said.

MMA president Dr Ravindran R Naidu said the tests may trigger false alarms, and drive people to take unwarranted and invasive procedures to prove the results of the tests.

He highlighted the unreliability of routine cancer marker tests, stating that although abnormal results from these tests were usually false alarms, normal results did not exclude the possibility of cancer, thus potentially leaving cancers undetected in patients. 

Some private laboratories also have doctors to do further screenings, and recommend treatment or sell vitamins and health supplements after the "supposedly" abnormal blood test results are issued.

"This practice may even endanger the patient's health whereby the need for proper treatment may be neglected," he said.

Ravindran said that although 24 years had passed since the Malaysian Society of Pathologists submitted a memorandum to the Health Ministry on the issue, it has not been resolved yet.

"Are we going to wait another 24 years before we see the Act coming into effect?" he asked.