KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has slammed Khairy Jamaluddin's silence over the association's invitation to discuss roping in private general practitioners (GPs) for National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
MMA president Professor Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said an official letter was sent to the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister on March 2 on this matter.
However, he said there has no response from the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee (JKJAV) until today.
He said it seemed like the minister showed no interest to engage with the GPs which was disappointing as calls for private GPs to participate in NIP have been made for months.
"One of the main reasons why the three Movement Control Order (MCO) failed to control the Covid-19 situation, is the government's failure to listen.
"There is a lot of talk from them, but no listening. A good leader is one who has his finger on the pulse of the rakyat and understands their needs.
"Policies are decided in silos, with hardly any engagement with the stakeholders. This has been the story since day one of the pandemic," Dr Subramaniam said in a statement today.
He said any hope of successful management of the pandemic would be an uphill task if the government fails to engage the relevant people and turn away help.
He also lamented how private GPs have not even been consulted even when the vaccination programme involves them.
MMA has been working closely with Protect Health Corporation or PHCorp (a non-profit company set up by the Health Ministry) to enrol 5,000 GP to inoculate 150,000 individuals daily.
As of April 29, only 2,500 GPs have registered with the NIP.
On May 30, Khairy said some 1,800 out of 2,500 GPs registered with PHCorp have undergone training as vaccinators under the NIP.
Dr Subramaniam said the NIP's vaccination rollout would progress faster if discussions between the Health Ministry, JKJAV and MMA took place.
"(The minister) should have come down from his high horse to meet with us months ago when we wrote to him.
"Perhaps that would have encouraged more GPs to get on board.
"Why are there only 2,500 GPs registered for the NIP? He has a Zoom session with the media every other day. Why hasn't he had a Zoom session with the 8,000 GPs in the country?
"Only now when Covid-19 cases and deaths have skyrocketed, there is talk of GPs. Where were they months ago? Or are we keeping the tradition of waiting for things to get worse before something is done?"
Private GPs, Dr Subramaniam said, had received training by end of April and had been ready to kickstart vaccinations early May, as targeted.
He claimed GPs who had been ropped into the NIP so far were "left hanging" and questioned the minister if he was aware of that.
"The training required for vaccinations are mostly on cold chain requirements for the vaccines storage and administrative procedures.
"Nothing too technical or scientific. The training is done online, and it takes only two to three hours to complete.
"Even using the 'special' syringe is not complicated. They should trust the doctor to know how to handle one. All GPs were trained by the Health Minister, by the way".
Dr Subramaniam said the NIP rollout could allow up to 75,000 vaccinations to be carried out per day, even with the 2,500 GPs involved.
"He is bugged and bombarded with questions on the slow progress of NIP almost every day. If Khairy is aware of the numbers, he should be bugging the GPs night and day to ensure the programme rollout is on track.
"Especially if it's not moving along, knowing that they are the best, easiest option and most readily available sources to carry out vaccination programme.
"Shouldn't he be engaging with more private GPs who can instantly double or triple the vaccination rate?"
He said he was highlighting the issue because he wanted to help in efforts to expedite vaccinations in order for Malaysia to recover quickly from the pandemic, which has been a nightmare for the people.