KUALA LUMPUR – The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) decided to pull out at the eleventh hour from a student-organised public forum yesterday on the impacts of rising private healthcare costs.
The forum, hosted by Universiti Malaya (UM) student groups and its Faculty of Medicine yesterday, was initially set to have APHM president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh as a key panellist to deliver insights from the perspective of private healthcare centres.
However, about 20 minutes before the event was scheduled to begin, evidently frazzled student representatives managing the programme were informed that Kuljit – who is also the medical director of Prince Court Medical Centre and the president of the Asian Hospital Federation – would not show up.
This caused a slight delay to the forum, titled “Healthcare for Whom?: The Implications of Increasing Hospital Charges on the National Healthcare System,” which also featured PKR’s Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin as a panellist.
While organisers were forced to make last-minute amendments to the digital backdrop used during the forum following Kuljit’s no-show, his image remains on the posters uploaded on social media to promote the event.
Kuljit, who is a practising doctor, has told Scoop he did not attend the event due to a patient emergency.
“I had an emergency which I had to attend and couldn’t leave the patient,” he said when contacted by Scoop.
It remains unclear why APHM opted not to send a representative from the association, which has 158 members nationwide.
Instead, public health medicine specialist Dr Tarani Loganathan, who is also an associate professor with UM’s Social and Preventive Medicine, was slotted in at the last minute to replace Kuljit.
Other panellists included Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy CEO Azrul Mohd Khalid and former Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara CEO Wan Nadiah Wan Abdullah Yaakob.
Government backbencher Sim, who is also part of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which will be looking into potential regulations for the private healthcare sector, has long voiced concerns about the effects of rising private healthcare costs.
The lawmaker is understood to have prepared a number of hard-hitting questions for Kuljit.
Scoop has also reached out to the APHM president and is awaiting responses on DRG initiatives and other matters related to the forum.
Speaking to reporters after the forum, Sim likened the situation with private hospitals to the “Wild Wild West” as “no one has the authority” to regulate such institutions.
“They can do anything they want, and no one can control or investigate them. This is something that has to be rectified,” he added, noting that the PAC is set to include a public hearing as part of its proceedings on the matter.
Previously, the public was left reeling after a steep hike in health and life insurance premiums, said to be linked to sharp increases in private healthcare costs.
Health insurance and takaful operators have since been ordered by Bank Negara Malaysia to spread out an expected increase in premiums over a minimum of three years. – January 4, 2025
