SPECIALISTS offering Full Paying Patient (FPP) services at public hospitals must treat public patients first before tending to their FPP, says the Health Ministry.
In a written parliamentary reply, the ministry also said that FPP outpatients can only make up 30% of all outpatients that a specialist treats per session.
The ministry was responding to Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (IND-Kuala Kangsar) who wanted the ministry to justify expanding FPP services within government hospitals.
He also questioned the potential burden FPP might place on doctors and its impact on patient care.
Introduced in 2007, the FPP service is currently available in 10 government hospitals – Hospital Putrajaya, Hospital Selayang, Hospital Pulau Pinang, Hospital Ampang, Hospital Serdang, Hospital Sungai Buloh, Hospital Sultanah Aminah and Hospital Sultan Ismail in Johor, Hospital Umum Sarawak and Hospital Queen Elizabeth II in Sabah.
The ministry said a 2018 study by its Institute for Health Management found that FPP patients were generally satisfied with the service.
The primary goals of FPP are to reduce the migration of medical specialists to private hospitals by providing them with a competitive income opportunity, to lessen the government’s financial burden of subsidising healthcare for those who can afford it, and to offer patients the choice of being treated by a specialist.
“Beyond FPP, the ministry has introduced the ‘Rakan KKM’ initiative, offering value-added services to those who can pay without affecting access for the less privileged.”
