KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry aims to expand the provision of ‘virtual clinics’ across the country in a bid to further improve the efficiency of outpatient healthcare services.
Deputy Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said this move would give patients the choice of receiving online medical consultations in place of making actual visits to the doctor, at the early stage of illness.
He also cited the example of patients with non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and how they could check their blood pressure and sugar levels at home and seek online consultations.
Such consultations would also be useful for patients who could be experiencing certain symptoms but were not sure about them, as during an online consultation, the relevant physician would be able to advise such patients on whether a conventional consultation or referral to a specialist was required – Lee said this option was being practised in other countries.
There are currently five pilot virtual clinics or online consultation services provided by the ministry’s health clinics in Section 7, Shah Alam; Seberang Jaya, Penang; Precinct 18 in Putrajaya; Luyang, Sabah and Tudan in Miri, Sarawak – the services began in May this year.
Speaking to reporters after launching the Asean Health Summit 2019 here yesterday, the minister stressed however that conventional visits to the doctor would still be needed, depending on the type of medical problem at hand.
He added that in reference to ‘virtual clinics’, the ministry was studying data security and privacy matters, and was also looking to partner with the private sector to enable the establishment of a digitised healthcare system that is robust. — Bernama