PETALING JAYA, June 20 — General practitioners in Fomema panel clinics say rates paid to them do not reflect the time and effort used on medical examinations.

MMA’s National Chairman for Private Practitioners Dr Muruga Raj said the association representing private practioners needed to be consulted in the matter.

“Doctors are the ones doing the job and, therefore, we are the most important people government needs to engage,” he said.

He added that the cost of running a practice 18 years ago was different from now.

“The fees were fixed in 1998 and back then, we were paying staff RM500 monthly and electricity bills were also lower. We didn’t need a radiographer to use the X-ray machines as doctors could do it themselves and the minimum wage was RM1,500,” he said.

“Now, everything has gone up four or five fold, except the doctor’s fees.”

Dr Muruga said doctors would also lose if many foreign workers came in for checks daily as their income would be limited.

“Sometimes, 30 foreign workers come in for checks at one go and we won’t make much from them,” he said.

He said they would not be able to attend to other patients and ‘‘we would have lost our business.’’    

The MMA wants the government to increase fees to examine foreign workers from RM60 to RM90 and from RM25 to RM50 for X-rays.

Dr Muruga said the MMA's quarrel was not with Fomema but with the Public Private Partnership Unit (Ukas) in the Prime Minister’s Department.

“We are not against Fomema because they have no say in it, but the government has. They (the government) keep signing the contract every seven years without engaging the stakeholders,” he said.

Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia deputy president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah said many GPs were not able to make ends meet,  especially in cities due to increasing costs.

“We have been trying to engage with the government for over a year because they need to be fair to the GPs and we need to maintain the practice,” he said.

“We do not get reimbursement, even for the syringe, plaster and other items used in the medical checks. We also have to pay for the annual nuclear board licensing and checking of X-ray machines.’

He added that RM90 was the average fee for medical checkups as insurance companies and private hospitals charged that rate.

Dr Raj said doctors had not been officially informed about the renewal and had only heard of it through word of mouth.

“The MMA has been trying to meet them to discuss the matter but they have been evading us. We are upset that they are not trying to talk to us,” he said.

“We are not looking for a huge fee. It is just time for a review of rates after nearly 20 years.”

He said the scope of medical examinations had increased from a basic full-body checkups to more complicated ones.

“Over the last few years, they realised that foreign workers were having other issues and added mental health check, which was the latest addition,” he said.

“The administrative jobs that were initially done by Fomema have now been pushed to us also, such as the appeal process if a worker fails.”

He said it was important to engage doctors as they were the ones on the grounds examining foreign workers and would be able to provide feedback on how to improve the system.

Private practitioner Dr Loh Kien Woon, who operates a clinic on the Fomema panel, said clinics were on the losing end as prices had increased over the years.

“I think that Fomema’s fees should follow insurance companies which charge RM90 for the physical examiniation and an additiional RM20 each for blood and urine tests’.

Another doctor from Kepong who declined to be identified said it was more difficult these days because expectations were greater and overheads higher as well.