Business Takaful

Source: The Star, Views by Old GP Kuala Lumpur, 15th September 2007

I am a general practitioner doctor who is concerned about affordable healthcare in Malaysia.

Come January 2008, it will cost double to take your child to a local GP. Instead of paying RM20 or so for consultation and treatment of a simple illness, be prepared to pay RM50 or more.

The extra costs will be incurred due to compulsory pre-packaging of dispensed medicines, starting with syrup and later involving all pills and even applied cream.

By pre-packaging medicines, doctors will only be able to buy drugs in expensive small dispensing units and will not be able to buy it economically in bulk.

For privatised healthcare, getting consultation with medication at your local GP must be among the cheapest and most efficient in the world.

Without insurance or medical plans, anyone with RM20 to RM30 can seek treatment at any one of numerous private clinics and receive professional consultation complete with medicines dispensed.

To achieve economies of scale without compromising quality, medicines are purchased in bulk and subsequently re-packed into bottles and smaller containers according to the needs of individuals patients.

When rumours surfaced early this year that supplies of drugs in bulk will cease by 2008, doctors began stocking up bulk supplies.

Years ago, cough mixtures were banned in bulk gallon form and could only be sold in pre-packaged 2oz bottles to prevent codeine abuse by drug addicts.

This cause the price of cough mixtures to increase significantly, in some cases by as much as 50%.

By 2008, this same increase will likely be applied to mixtures that treat fever, colds, allergies and other benign ailments. None of these require controls as in codeine abuse.

The first group of patients affected will be children who use medicines in syrup form. The cost of treating a child will increase and parents of large families will suffer a heavy financial burden for unavoidable common illness.

What does pre-packaging of medicines achieve? There is no added-value other than a pretty bottle with a pretty label.

Of course, there is the issue of a hologram, the supplier of which seems to be the only beneficiary of this exercise. To the doctors and their patients, it is merely form over function.

In this day and age when we are encouraged to tighten our belts, a necessity such as medicines should not be subjected to unnecessary price increase for nothing more than cosmetic reasons.

I fear for the welfare of my patients and have absorbed as much of the rising costs of medicines as possible. When medicine costs increase dramatically next year due to pre-packaging, it is difficult to keep costs down.

How do I tell the makcik who brings her four cucu for cough and cold that her bill is now increased to RM200?