KUALA LUMPUR: All doctors on Fomema Sdn Bhd’s panel have signed a contract to conform to the standard operating procedures (SOP) laid out by the company.
Fomema general manager Tang Yow Lee, in a statement to The Malay Mail, said the agreement stipulated that doctors must adhere strictly to the SOP in carrying out medical examination on foreign workers under Fomema’s health screening programme.
“We recently issued a revised and updated SOP as part of the new management’s initiative to enhance the monitoring and surveillance system in ensuring quality and integrity of the medical examinations,” he said.
He clarified that the updated SOP was discussed and agreed upon by the authorities, including the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA).
“The doctors also agreed to the SOP, which states that failure to follow or breach any part of the procedures may result in action taken by Fomema, including suspension,” he said, in response to The Malay Mail report on April 9.
It was reported that doctors suspended by Fomema had claimed that the procedures set by the company were not practical.
The doctors had complained to MMA president Datuk Dr N. Arumugam who revealed complaints about the impracticality of certain procedures.
Dr Arumugam noted one `unreasonable’ procedure as doctors being required to determine whether the passports of the workers are genuine.
But Tang refuted that the procedures do not state that.
“Instead, Clause 1.1 of the SOP requires the attending doctor to verify the identity of the foreign worker through his or her passport and that medical examination should not be conducted if the identity cannot be ascertained.
“This procedure is critical as we have detected attempts by healthy persons standing in place of unhealthy foreign workers in order to obtain favourable medical results to extend their work permits,” said Tang.
Tang added that if the identity of the foreign workers is not properly verified at the medical examination, it will affect the integrity of the medical results by the doctors.
Dr Arumugam had also said that Fomema also required the doctors to spend at least 15 minutes to examine the workers.
He had argued that a strict time frame was not necessary as the doctors are professionals and know their responsibilities.
To this, Tang clarified that the time frame is only a guide and that the Health Ministry, MMA and Fomema had agreed that doctors should not carry out too many medical examinations on foreign workers in a day to ensure the quality of the tests is not compromised.
Tang also said Fomema uses the guide as it has detected doctors who have claimed to carry out 100 medical examinations in a day.
The Malay Mail had, on April 7, reported that 25 doctors on Fomema’s panel had been suspended after they were found to have breached procedures including giving misleading information on the workers.
Several doctors were caught allowing a healthy foreign worker to stand in for a sick worker for an X-ray.
The errant doctors were those from the Klang Valley, Johor and Negri Sembilan.
Fomema was given a concession by the Government to carry out medical examinations on foreign workers in 1997. It has 3,300 doctors on its panel.
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