With the federal and state governments and GLCs holding stakes in an increasing number of private hospitals, is there a conflict of interest?
Blog reader Ganesh shares his thoughts.
If you see the private hospitals, some of them are virtually owned either directly or indirectly by the government.
So, the government has absolutely no incentive to build more new government hospitals nor to upgrade existing government hospitals at all.
Ever since health care support services in general hospitals were privatised, costs borne by taxpayers have soared.
In 1996, health care support services were privatised to three companies: Faber Medi-Serve Sdn Bhd (FMS), Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd and Pantai Medivest Sdn Bhd.
In 1997, the payments made to these companies added up to RM340 million, broken down as follows:
Male GM mosquitoes could be released at both inhabited and uninhabited sites in Pahang and Melaka in October or November, if the National Biosafety Board of Malaysia approves an application to conduct experiments.
The Aedes mosquito (OX513A strain) has been modified to include two new traits, fluorescence and ‘conditional lethality’, which means that in the absence of the antibiotic tetracycline, offspring from these males will die. The trial is aimed at finding out how long these GM mosquitoes will survive and how far they will disperse compared to the wild type non-GM mosquitoes.
If the Institute of Medical Research’s application is approved, up to 6,000 of these ‘non-biting’ GM mosquitoes and a number of non-GM mosquitoes will be released in the Bentong district of Pahang and Alor Gajah and Melaka district. The release will be carried out over two consecutive days during the second week of October or November 2010.
Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand is the most trusted individual in all of Thailand, according to a Readers’ Digest Trust survey.
This survey in October 2009 found that out of 80 individuals in the country, the Director of Thailand’s Forensic Science Institute was the most trusted.
A study just out reveals that about 85 per cent of new drugs offer few if any new benefits. In fact, a significant cause of death in the United States is due to the toxic side effects or misuse of prescription drugs, reports the Science Daily.
“Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs’ benefits,” said Prof Donald Light, author of the paper, Pharmaceuticals: A Two-Tier Market for Producing ‘Lemons’ and Serious Harm.
Drug firms also tend to spend two or three times more on marketing than research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs for conditions other than those for which the drugs have been approved, said Light, who is professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He added that doctors usually tend to dismiss patients’ complaints of side effects or take them lightly.
Some light relief. Does this sound familiar though?
Now here’s some information about Pornthip’s academic background, her career and Mahidol University’s status to enlighten a certain lawyer.
Times Higher Educ Supplement (THES) Rankings:
2009 World Universities Rankings:
Mahidol ranked at 101 (Life Sciences & Biomedicine)
Mahidol ranked at 220 (Overall)2010 Asian Universities Rankings:
Mahidol placed at 18 (Life Sciences & Biomedicine)
Mahidol placed at 28 (Overall).
Thai forensic pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand, testifying at the inquest into Teoh Beng Hock’s death, insists that the incident was not suicide: “I will not go into percentages. I am sure it is not suicide.”
When the MACC counsel accused her of taking sides, Pornthip responded, “You have to understand. I work for the rights of the dead, not the Selangor government.” The crowd in the courtroom broke into applause.
Photos by Rakyat@work
While Umno and MCA enjoy a public spat and put up a wayang for the rest of us, Zaid Ibrahim has a story on how the NEP was put to use to fabulously enrich a coterie of well-connected individuals.
Najib’s brother Nazir Razak noted the NEP had become bastardised, but Zaid writes: “What he (Nazir) doesn’t say explicitly is that the NEP, which was set up with noble aims of eradicating poverty irrespective of race, has become a system that is opaque, corrupt, non-accountable and highly secretive.”
Check out Zaid’s fascinating blog entry here to find out how a few familiar names made it big, thanks to the NEP. Now that’s the real 1Malaysia for you – all very muhibbah among the political and business elites as they get-rich-quick, while the ordinary, struggling rakyat are manipulated into squabbling about racial and religious issues in a highly polarised environment.