The sudden government decision to sanction the sale of 51 percent of IJN to Sime Darby is a exceptionally misplaced privatisation exercise.

This BN government has adopted this warped policy without due indepth study and has always adopted this knee-jerk action for pecuniary benefits of vested corporate organisations.

Many public entities eg Bekalan Air Selangor had been taken over by private companies with promises of improving quality and cost efficiency but ultimately it has burdened the citizens with increased tariffs.

Now the new Pakatan Rakyat government in Selangor is negotiating a buy back exercise to reduce the exorbitant profits racked in by Syabas at the expense of the tax-paying state citizens and the poor citizens of the state of Selangor.

The BN federal government should never have given permission to Sime Darby to purchase a 51 percent controlling share in IJN because this is to the detriment of the patients’ welfare and there will be gradual escalation of costs to all and sundry in the foreseeable future.

There are many areas wherein corporate bodies will scheme off the profits and would also demand a bail out when the going gets bad.

The approval to Sime Darby to take over IJN clearly shows the companies strategic intent to mobilise all its resources for maximum profits and to monopolise the high-end cardiac management of patients with the establishment of another cardiac hospital in Labu, Negeri Sembilan.

IJN KL will become a catchment area for cardiac patients from the highly competitive private sector, to feed Sime Darby hospitals in Subang Jaya and also in Labu and destroy any competition to their specialty.

They will also maximise profits for their Subang Jaya hospital by redirecting all patients from IJN to this Subang Jaya hospital which has only made a profit of RM20 million last year. The cardiac procedure rates will also escalate for the paying patients and there will additional cost added when the monopoly is complete.

The newly appointed health minister, after the March 2008 general election, mentioned a new comprehensive healthcare financing policy which would encompass both the private and the public sector to deliver affordable healthcare to all the citizens in Malaysia .

Nothing has been forthcoming over the last nine months except this self-defeating statement on IJN’s privatisation being approved by the EPU. I would like to know what is the ministry of health's position on the long-term impact of this decision.

Malaysia has been independent for the last 51 years and the BN government has not adopted a comprehensive healthcare policy to address the dichotomy between the private and the public sector.

There is long waiting time for patients at the follow-up clinics for stable cardiac patients which can be addressed with a new healthcare financing policy. The burden can be shifted to the primary care doctors in the local vicinity of patients domicile.

There are many patients travelling long distances and waiting at IJN KL from morning to evening because they are given cost free medication as civil servants and selected poor patients.This could be overcome with a comprehensive healthcare policy similar to that in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

It would be an eye-opener, if readers could watch the movie ‘Sicko’ produced by Michael Moore of the US who has shown how the profit-based healthcare system in US has denied 40 million US citizens affordable healthcare. This IJN privatisation would be the beginning of a foolhardy short-term healthcare policy following the US healthcare quagmire.

The BN government must have the political will to institute healthcare policy overhaul and reform which is overdue because there two parallel healthcare systems operating in Malaysia Well-trained medical professionals in the private sector are under-utilised and there is a great waste of human potential and skills whilst the government hospitals are overburdened due to free cost and insufficient, inexperienced medical professionals.

There is tremendous wastage of taxpayers fund at the government hospitals and it requires great political leadership to steer towards a new healthcare policy to maximise every ringgit spent by the government to benefit the people of Malaysia.

The incoming president of the US has the political will and foresight to initiate plans to correct the great injustice perpetrated on the poor, infirm, sick and weak in the US by managed healthcare organisations, insurance companies and private investors in private hospitals by appointing a new team under Tom Dahscele to start the ball rolling for US healthcare reform.