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PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has been affected by the “flip-flop in policies” surrounding the evaluation of workers, including foreigners, for Covid-19, saying it left owners of business, employees and general practitioners (GP) and frustrated
MMA President Dr. N Ganabaskaran said this included the government’s position on the use of Rapid Antibody Test (RTK) kits.
Ganabaskaran said that since the announcement that RTK would be used, companies have been calling clinics to coordinate screening of their employees.
But he said doctors couldn’t perform the exam without the necessary guidelines, which were a safety requirement since doctors and their staff were at risk of infection.
However, yesterday, the Social Security Organization (Socso) said it was discontinuing the use of RTK for mandatory screening of workers.
Instead, he said only the Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) detection method will be used.
“Recently, a radical change in policy with no clear guidelines on testing the workforce before companies resume operations under the Conditional Movement Control (CMCO) order has left business owners, employees, and even GPs in the country confused and frustrated, “Ganabaskaran said in a statement.
He said that MMA has advised general practitioners not to perform the RTK antibody test without clear guidelines on its use, infection prevention and control protocols, interpretation guidelines, and quarantine criteria.
He also said there is confusion regarding worker testing following an announcement by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) two days ago.
Miti, he said, had stated that companies can resume business operations from May 4 without a letter of approval from the ministry and that the evaluation of Covid-19 workers is not mandatory.
This, he said, contradicts his previous announcement of a requirement to evaluate all workers.
“Stakeholders are now confused about why projections were necessary in the beginning and no longer needed now, knowing that the Covid-19 threat is still present.”
He said the government must be clear on which sectors it wanted to focus on when implementing its selective selection of foreign workers, adding that proper coordination between ministries is also needed.
He believed the confusion would not have happened if the announcement to evaluate workers was made after receiving guidelines from the health ministry.
“Health care is highly regulated. The guidelines must be in effect before the announcement of such an extensive program, ”he said.
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