Remove red tape, rope in GPs to expedite vaccine rollout – Miri MP

Dr Michael Teo

MIRI (June 3): The federal government has been urged to remove existing red tape and rope in all 7,000 private general practitioner (GP) clinics to expedite the rollout of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).

Miri MP Dr Michael Teo, who made the call, said this in view of the country’s dire Covid-19 situation.

“We are the most affected in the world – we have 205 persons per million infected with Covid-19 while India has only 150 persons per million affected.

“The government must address the ‘roadblocks’ in getting general practitioners in the country on board by doing away with red tape. They (GPs) are already professionally trained in handling vaccinations from the onset and they must be supplied with adequate vaccine doses.

“Private clinics have been vaccinating for many years without issue. Why all these issues now?” he asked.

Dr Teo said the MySejahtera application is slow and cumbersome compared to the registration practices of the GPs’ manual record system, and that these vaccination centres (PPVs) can report their daily vaccination order by logging online to the Health Ministry.

“This can be proven by the MySejahtera check-in at the clinic.”

The MP has previously advocated for walk-in vaccinations at clinics or other venues, similar to what is being done in the United States, United Kingdom and China, which he said are more effective than mega PPVs which could take between seven to 10 days to dispense 8,000 single doses.

Private clinics also have the advantage of having qualified doctors, being located closer to their patients, and possess the medical records of their patients especially concerning allergies, Dr Teo said.

“They can open anytime to deal with allergic reactions if any, apart being able to organise appointments and answer queries.”

He also suggested that clinics be reimbursed later by the government for daily or weekly vaccine purchases from government hospitals which are to be given free to patients.

Recently, Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Association Malaysia president Dr Steven Chow was reported as saying that making use of all 7,000 GPs and thousands of health clinics in the country could each easily vaccinate up to 50 patients daily and, if done with private hospitals, would see large numbers of people vaccinated in a very short time.

Dr Chow had also called for the removal of red tape surrounding the dispensing of the Covid-19 vaccine, saying: “GPs have been giving vaccines long before some of our ministers were born.”

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3cdg1Pa
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