Surviving Private Practice In Malaysia

Medic Foot prints Malaysia is an organisation by doctors for doctors, with  doctors' wellbeing at the centre of their focus. With Industry 5.0 already  on the horizons they believe that doctors should not be boxed into just one field - i.e. clinical. Healthcare is such a vast and wide ocean that  needs more input from doctors. Medic Footprints Malaysia aims to support doctors in all...

The common thinking is that self- improvement should be the domain of those in the universities or public hospitals and that a private practitioner’s duty is only to provide service. I beg to differ. In his book entitled “ The Anatomy of Success’ the late Dr. Rakesh Sinha said that there are 2 types of people in the world: the learners and the non learners. The best doctors are the ones who want t...

Providing a guaranteed income is a common method used by private hospitals to entice doctors to join them. It provides a sense of security to the doctors who are leaving government hospitals to go to  private practice. In this episode I will be talking about my experience with a guaranteed income and what does guaranteed income mean in Private Practice.

There are many private hospitals in Malaysia. Most of them are owned by government linked organizations or by business man. Very few are actually owned by doctors. Today we are fortunate to have Mr. Timothy Chang who works for a private equity firm, TPG capital and they have set up hospitals where doctors become part owners of these hospitals. This is a very interesting concept and we will learn m...

In this episode I will try to explain what is a difficult patient and how I deal with them.

Taking a consent for surgery in private practice can be tricky. In this episode I will discuss what factors to consider when taking a consent for surgery in private practice.

We only have 168 hours in a week. How we utilize this time will determine how successful we can be in private practice. I will first give you my experience managing my time as an obstetrician and gynaecologist and then give you some advice as to how you could maximize your time to achieve your goals in life.

A junior specialist recently asked me “How do you deal with complications: the shame, the gossip, the emotional discouragement and the potential litigation?” This is a topic that we   doctors often do not talk about because it exposes our weaknesses and makes us vulnerable in the eyes of the public and our colleagues. In this podcast I will be talking about how to cope with all the emoti...

In this interview Dr. Muruga Vadivale will share his experience working for the Pharma Industry for 25 years. He will give advise to doctors thinking of moving to work for Pharmaceutical companies. 

In this interview I will be asking Prof Lokman Saim, Dean of the KPJ Healthcare University College the challenges he faced in starting a Masters Programme in the Private Hospitals in Malaysia as well of the future of such programmes in other private hospitals in Malaysia. 

Most of us working in private practice will know that the whole private practice will not work without medical insurance. Today I am fortunate to speak to Dr. Prema Sundaralingam, a medical doctor who works for the insurance industry. She will not only answer how is it to work for an insurance company but also how the medical insurance industry works and how it supports Private Practice in Malaysi...

Medical insurance is an important and integral part of private practice in Malaysia. Almost all patients seen in the private sector have medical insurance. In this podcast I will explore the advantages as well as the challenges faced by doctors and the public when the use medical insurance to get treatment in private hospitals

In this episode I will be speaking to Dr Naveen Rajadurai, Consultant Radiologist and subspecialist in Musculoskeletal Radiology at Damansara Specialist Hospital. The KPJ university also runs a Masters in Radiology programme and Dr Naveen is a teacher and trainer of Master Students in Radiology

This is part 2 of the interview with Dr Ho Hon Lian Consultant ENT specialist at Ampang Puteri Hospital in Kuala Lumpur. In this second part, I will be asking him what happens after he has passed his Masters exam and how he obtained his NSR and became a consultant ENT specialist at Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital.

We know that many junior contract doctors will be out of job soon. Many of them who want to become specialist have to find alternative ways to get training. I believe that the private sector can also take on this challenge of training specialist in private hospitals. In this Podcas, I will be talking to Dr. Ho Hon Lin Consultant ENT at Ampang Puteri Hospital in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Ho was trained to b...

Dr. HM Goh started his career as a medical doctor. Then he transitioned to an informatics expert. Later he moved to health care management and now he is a health care investor working with a private equity. In part 1 he described how he transitioned from a medical doctor to his current job as a health care investor. In this part he will be giving advise to young doctors who want to pursue an alter...

In this podcast I will be interviewing Dr. HM Goh. Dr. HM Goh started his career as a medical doctor. Then he transitioned to an informatics expert. Later he moved to health care management and now he is a health care investor working with a private equity. This podcast is divided into 2 parts. In this part 1 he will describe how he transitioned from a medical doctor to his current job as a health...

There is an unseen bond between pharmaceutical companies and doctors. Pharmaceutical companies need the doctors to promote their products and doctors need the financial assistance and marketing capabilities of pharmaceutical companies. The Malaysian Medical Council has a specific guideline entitled “Relationship between doctors and the Pharmaceutical industry” (MMC guideline 007/2006), which aims...

There are many situations in which you will need assistance from your colleagues or a specialist from another specialty. When and how to get assistance can be tricky. There will be situations where a colleague will ask you for assistance. You will have to decide whether you want to provide that assistance and the consequences that follow. I will discuss my experience in this area.

You are a government doctor and you want to move to the private sector. In the government service you get a fixed salary. You do not charge for your work that you do. In the private sector, you earn a living by charging a fee for your service. One decision you will have to make is when are you going to waive your fees or give a discount. Are you going to charge your colleagues, other doctors and t...

As a practicing private practitioner, I will divide specialists in private practice into 2 categories and I will call them frontline specialists and supportive specialists. Let me explain further. A frontline specialist is a specialist who has direct contact with patients. These are the specialists whom patients look for to seek treatment. Examples of these specialities are: Medicine and its subsp...

When I first decided to move to private practice, I applied to a well-known private hospital in Johor Bahru. My application was turned down, as I was considered “not marketable”. This had nothing to do with my skills or ability to work very hard. The decision was just based on my physical characteristics, namely being a male, Indian gynaecologist . I had to do more to attract the patients away fro...

So you have decided to move to Private Practice. How are you going to persuade the public to consult you in preference to your colleagues? At medical school, you were never taught about the economics of medicine or marketing for patients. In fact talking about money in the medical field is abhorred. Having concentrated on working hard to become a specialist, you have never thought of how to surviv...

One clause in that contract that has always bothered me is that I am not allowed to practice anywhere else unless I get prior approval from the management. I have always wondered about the unfairness of this clause. We are not allowed to practice elsewhere but the management can bring in anyone into the hospital without even informing us! Bringing in another specialist in my field would definitely...

I left government service for Mahkota Medical Centre, Melaka in 1994 at the age of 34. I was a young specialist at that time. Most of the pioneer doctors were off about the same age. Being in a brand new hospital, we worked very hard to build it. As time passes, more doctors joined the hospital. In 2019 we celebrated our 25th anniversary. I am now considered a senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gy...