Medical Act and Private Healthcare Facilities Act

I will start this page by illustrating a story. Imagine the following. "John deliberately murdered another person. He was caught and then brought to justice. John is only 19 years of age, come from a broken family and have been living on the streets since he was 6yrs old. In his defense, he told the judge that he didnt know that killing another person is a crime. Nobody told him that its a crime to murder. Would you think the judge will say 'you are now a freeman, since you don't know that killing another person is wrong'? Of course not! You must be wondering why I illustrate the story above and what it has got to do with healthcare? The answer is this, many doctors are not aware the laws that are present governing them. Either these doctors are truly not aware or they are just bluntly ignorant. If a doctor do not know the laws governing their practice, then they will be like 'John' in the story above, a scenario that is not uncommon. In Malaysia, practicing doctors are regulated by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC). The power of the MMC come from the Medical Act 1971. The Medical Act regulates doctors' practices in the country, hence all doctors need to be familiar with the act. The Medical Act has recently be amended, hence it is now quoted as Medical Act 1971 (Amended 2012). I will not describe the new things in the latest amended Medical Act, but this post is rather to let doctors know the existant of laws. At any moment in time, if a doctor breeches any part of the act, they can be strike out from the registry and will not be able to practice medicine. Next if private healthcare facilities. Doctors practicing in the private sector will also need to realize that the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFA)1998 regulates all private healthcare providers in Malaysia. The regulation for the PHFA was enforced much later with regulations in 2006. The Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Regulations (PHFR) 2006 has 2 portion, one for private medical and dental clinics and another all other private healthcare facilities (eg medical centres, dialysis centres, ambulatory care centres, etc) These 2 are the commonly used and essentially covers most doctors and hospitals in private medical practice. Finally, doctors please 'know' the law before it is too late.

Those that wish to download a copy of the PHFA 1998, you can do so with this link

 The Medical Act 1971 can be downloaded at the following link