E-kesihatan System Scrapped
By New Straits Times
SHAH ALAM: The controversial e-kesihatan system has been scrapped. Transport minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said it would be replaced by a new system that would ensure an absence of a monopoly by any party. He said e-kesihatan concessionaire, Supreme System Sdn Bhd, had been informed of the government’s decision to discontinue the project. He said the project had been referred to the Road Transport Department to be placed on the drawing board for a system that could serve public interest well.
Ong said compensation had not been finalised with the RTD looking into the legal implications of terminating the project. He added that the issue of compensation was also out of the ministry’s jurisdiction as it involved other government agencies like the Economic Planning Unit. Supreme Systems has filed a RM103mil claim for compensation over the termination of the project.
On the reasons behind the termination, he said the government had been faced with a situation where it needed to strike the right balance. “On one hand, we need medical certificates to ensure that the physical fitness of public transport drivers was done but we do not want to make it burdensome to the public. “We will come out with a new fee structure and, most importantly, we insist there should not be any monopoly,” he said after visiting Jalan Multimedia in i-City here yesterday.
The transport ministry has been attempting to implement the e-kesihatan system since 2005. The system, to have started on Oct 1 last year, allowed medical check-up results of commercial vehicles drivers to be electronically transmitted from panel clinics and laboratories to the RTD. However, it received widespread criticism from doctors, taxi and bus operators who claimed that the scheme was a money-making operation.