Scrambling to put up price lists
PETALING JAYA: Private clinics are still struggling to display the prices of the medicines they dispense, although a ruling requiring them to do so came into effect yesterday.
Some have not even started doing so.
Checks at clinics here found that some were in the midst of compiling and preparing their price lists due to Wednesday's gazettement of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Marking for Drugs) Order.
Dr Nadir Khan, 60, said that he was busy preparing the price list while treating his patients.
'I began working on the list on Wednesday. I spent most of last night and this morning drawing up the list.
'Luckily, I have almost finished preparing it. All that's left is to print it out later,' he said in an interview.
A 21-year-old clinic nurse , who only wanted to be known as Maisarah, said they had just managed to prepare the price list earlier yesterday.
'We have a simple medicine price list ready to be printed and put on display, but we are waiting for final instructions from our clinic headquarters,' she said.
Many other clinics were also waiting for word from their headquarters, most of which were closed for Labour Day yesterday.
One clinic in Puchong, however, displayed medicine prices in an 18-page binder.
A nurse at the clinic, Aishah Maisara, 22, said they could produce the list due to their modern clinic management system that was installed less than a year ago.
'Our management system had a full list of our medication and prices all readily available. All we had to do was print it out into a binder that is now displayed at the front desk.'
Many patients, however, were not impressed by the rule on price display. They said it was good for transparency but unlikely to affect their clinic choice.
Accountant Nur Sara Shahera, 30, said the price displays were not going to make her go 'window shopping' for cheaper prices if she were ill.
'It could be risky for me to wander around clinics just to find cheaper prices. It is the last thing I will think about when I get sick.
'However, the prices displayed could be used as a point of reference when I need to visit other clinics,' she said when met at a clinic here.
Hamrul Fahmi, 31, who works for a third-party administrator company, said that he would only use display pricing to compare prices to those at pharmacies to find the best deal.
'I will tell my doctor to give me a prescription so that I can verify which medications are cheaper at his clinic and which are cheaper at pharmacies,' he said.
'But I will still visit the same clinic because consultation with the doctor is still important.'
Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said their members have begun displaying medicine prices since yesterday.
'We see the three-month phased educational approach to this enforcement as a good opportunity for all stakeholders to identify and address any challenges in the implementation.
'Ultimately, we want to ensure that the practice of price transparency benefits patients,' Dr Kuljit added.
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