MMA wants halt to mandatory price labelling move

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) wants the government to halt its plan to implement mandatory price labelling for medicines at private healthcare centres and community pharmacies.

Its president, Datuk Dr Kalwinder Singh Khaira, said the decision would allow a proper engagement and resolution of the concerns raised by the association.

These concerns, he said, included the need for a long-overdue revision of private general practitioner (GP) consultation fees and engagement on the price labelling policy.

He said the private GP consultation fees had remained stagnant for 33 years and had still not been addressed.

This, said Dr Kalwinder, was despite Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad saying in February, during an advocacy meeting that the price labelling policy would only be implemented after the completion of the “long-overdue” revision of the GP’s issue.

“Unfortunately and sadly, this commitment has not been honoured,” he said in a statement.

Earlier today, Dzulkefly and Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali had announced that the mandatory price labelling would take effect tomorrow.

They said the initiative was a collaboration between the two ministries and aimed to ensure the public can make informed choices by knowing, comparing, and selecting the best prices when managing their medication expenses.

Dr Kalwinder also said that previously, Dzulkefly had agreed to meet with MMA and others to address their concerns regarding the implementation of the policy, but no such meeting has taken place.

He said MMA had also officially written to Armizan to discuss the implementation of the policy, but had yet to receive any response.

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

Source link