KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) is concerned over Covid-19 vaccine recipients’ names, which have gone missing from the vaccination list, most of whom are private healthcare workers.
MMA president Datuk Dr M. Subramaniam said the names went missing from the list due to the lack of coordination and planning by health authorities in the registration process.
“If this is not addressed, many private healthcare workers will miss their scheduled vaccinations.
“It should be noted that currently, only private doctors have been identified as frontliners to be vaccinated. Clinical assistants and nurses have not been included as frontliners in some states, when they are equally exposed to the risk of Covid-19 infection and should be vaccinated.”
Dr Subramaniam said this in response to complaints from doctors in the private practice whose names went missing from the vaccination list.
He took note of an open letter sent to The Star by a doctor yesterday venting frustration over the matter, adding that this is after MMA had submitted the names of doctors to be immunised as early as January.
“So, at the end of February, upon finding out that the immunisation programme is decentralised and being conducted by state Health Departments, MMA took the initiative to send the list of 28,000 healthcare workers registered with it (as per data required by the Health Ministry’s vaccine unit) to the respective states, and updated the list on a weekly basis.
“Going forward, MMA proposes that, to simplify the process, a portal be set up to enable private healthcare workers to check their names, dates and places of vaccination online.
“It should be a centralised system to allow them to directly register to avoid duplication and redundancy. It is, after all, a centralised policy with local implementation.”
However, Dr Subramaniam said, overall, the coordination of the vaccination drive is doing well, but district health offices are overwhelmed with work and additional administrative duties.
“The ministry should assist them with process automation to ease their work. It is hoped that the government will consider setting up the portal as soon as possible, as we are already progressing towards Phase 2 of the inoculation drive.
“Private general practitioners and their staffers will need to be immunised before they assist the government in administering the shot to Phases 2 and 3 recipients.”
There are an estimated 45,000 healthcare workers from 9,000 general practitioners and private specialist clinics nationwide. – The Vibes, April 2, 2021
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