GEORGE TOWN: Two public hospitals in Penang will continue to operate as usual despite the arrest of four orthopaedic specialists who are implicated in a fraudulent Social Security Organisation (Socso) claim scam.
Penang Health Department director Datuk Dr Fazilah Shaik Allaudin said the departments where the doctors were serving are still running as usual. One of them is serving at a hospital in Bukit Mertajam while three others are with a hospital in Seberang Jaya.
“The hospitals are not affected at all,” she said briefly.
Asked if the doctors involved would be suspended, Dr Fazilah said the case was still under investigation, adding that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should be given time and space to carry out their duties.
Yesterday, magistrate Siti Nurul Suhaila Baharin issued a four-day remand order on another three people, including two doctors, to facilitate investigation into the alleged falsifying of Socso disability claims amounting to RM2.1mil since 2017.
The doctors, aged 43 and 50, are from a public hospital in Seberang Jaya while another individual, 32, is said to be an agent.
This brought the total number of arrests made to 36, including the 33 people who MACC remanded to facilitate investigations under Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009 for the submission of false claims.
The offence carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ jail and a fine of RM10,000 or five times the value of the false claims, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Of the total, five of them are orthopaedic specialists aged between 36 and 57. One of them is with a private hospital in Butterworth while the rest are from public hospitals.
The others who are being remanded include 19 private sector employees, nine agents and three runners aged between 26 and 60.
During the Dewan Negara sessions in July, a senator from Penang Dr RA Lingeshwaran called on the government, particularly the Human Resources Ministry, to explain the alleged suspension of senior doctors handling Socso disability claims purportedly linked to a cartel in the state.
He had reportedly brought the matter up at the Dewan Negara on July 28, stating that the panel was suspended until further notice after Socso discovered the racket at a hospital in Penang.
In asking Socso for an update, Dr Lingeshwaran, who was a former director of Hospital Sungai Bakap, said the cartel was believed to be lobbying for the suspended doctors to return to work at the same hospital.
He also claimed there were 683 fraudulent Socso withdrawals from 2018 to 2022 involving about RM43mil, of which 16 involved a certain doctor whose services were terminated after the activities were exposed.
