KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 ― The government has withdrawn the Poisons (Amendment) Bill 2019 from the order paper in the Third Meeting of the Third Session of the 14th Parliament (2020).

The Bill has been postponed twice before this in its second and third readings ― once in December 2019 and then last August 27.

The motion to withdraw the Bill was made by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali before Question Time this morning.

No reason was given for the withdrawal from the order paper today.

The Bill was tabled for first reading on November 25 last year under the then Pakatan Harapan administration.

Among the amendments proposed were provisions to protect the rights of patients by offering them the option to decide where to fill their prescriptions.

Proposed new provisions under the amendment Bill would also require registered medical practitioners to issue prescriptions at the request of their patients.

The amendments proposed in the Bill include possible jail terms for medical practitioners who do not comply with requests for prescriptions by patients.

The Bill had however come under fire from several medical groups and lawmakers.

After backlash from medical practitioners, the Health Ministry had conducted a stakeholders’ meeting last February, chaired by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.