.JPG "Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin speaks during a press conference at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur May 30, 2021. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Firdaus Latif")
KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today said that not all general practitioner (GP) clinics want to take part in the country’s Covid-19 vaccination drive as only 2,467 of them have registered for the cause to date.
During a press conference today, Khairy said other than the limited number of registrants, the GPs also have to go through training and have the adequate equipment to store the vaccines in a cold chain system.
“This requires some preparation on the part of the GPs, not all want to participate, they have to register through ProtectHealth,” he said.
ProtectHealth is an initiative under the Health Ministry that is coordinating with private hospitals to ramp up the vaccination drive and achieve herd immunity for Malaysia.
Khairy was responding to a question regarding calls from the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Association Malaysia to employ all private GP clinics to speed up the NIP.
The association had claimed that there were 7,000 such clinics nationwide, which could each easily vaccinate up to 50 people daily.
Khairy said 1,665 of the registered GP clinics have undergone the required training, and that 1,482 had been given letters of appointment to join the NIP.
He added that only 720 of the registered GP clinics were adequately equipped for the cold chain system required for vaccine storage.
“The GPs are saying vaccination is routine for us. Yes, vaccinations before are routine, but this Covid-19 vaccination is different.
“We have to give basic training for storage, for administering the vaccine, which is a little bit different, using the special syringe and other requirements,” he said.
It was previously reported that “low dead-volume” syringes were being used to administer Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia as the syringes reduced wastage of the vaccine significantly.
Yesterday, Khairy announced that private GP clinics and private hospitals will be included into the NIP starting next month, as planned.
He said the aim for private vaccination centres was to administer 40,000 doses daily, and for the total daily vaccination rate to reach 150,000 doses nationwide.
It was reported that the NIP had managed to administer around 107,000 doses a day this week, but various quarters are still criticising the programme for being far too slow.
