KUALA LUMPUR (June 1): ProtectHealth Corp Sdn Bhd said the process of giving the green light to private general practitioners (GPs) to administer Covid-19 vaccine will be completed soon.
ProtectHealth, which was appointed to facilitate the involvement of GPs in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP), said this in response to the Malaysian Medical Association’s (MMA) media statement on the matter earlier today.
In a statement, ProtectHealth said it held an NIP briefing in collaboration with the MMA on April 2, which was attended by about 200 members of the association.
It added that it has organised more than 15 briefing sessions, and that training sessions for all registered private GPs have been held continuously since March 29, involving more than 6,000 private medical practitioners.
“For the record, over 2,600 GPs have registered with ProtectHealth since March 8 to date, and of this number, nearly 800 have expressed readiness to undertake vaccinations,” the company said.
To ensure that vaccinations are in accordance with the standards of the Ministry of Health (MoH), all state health departments are maximising the involvement of these practitioners, it said.
ProtectHealth said over 200 private medical practitioners have become vaccination centres to date, and are carrying out vaccinations under the NIP.
“ProtectHealth greatly appreciates the willingness of private GPs in helping accelerate efforts towards achieving herd immunity and at the same time, would like to emphasise that this involves various factors and stakeholders as it involves public health.
“ProtectHealth would like to take the opportunity to invite all 9,200 private GPs registered with the MoH to jointly participate in NIP and increase the daily dose capacity to achieve herd immunity immediately,” it said.
MMA, in its statement, said the NIP coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin had failed to engage with GPs over the immunisation programme.
MMA president Professor Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said the association had on March 2 written to Khairy on the involvement of private GPs in the second and third phases of the NIP.
Subramaniam said most of the 2,500 private GPs had received training by the end of April, but they were “left hanging”.
“The GPs have been waiting for the go-ahead from the government. Was the NIP coordinating minister aware of this? If he was, why the delay?" he questioned.