KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 — The Malaysian Medical Association’s (MMA) cooperation with Protect Health Corporation to enrol private general practitioners (GP) to conduct Covid-19 vaccination on the population is targeting 150,000 inoculations daily.

Its president Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said thus far 2,500 GPs have registered to participate as vaccinators in the second and third phases of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, via ProtectHealth’s online platform.

"Under the programme, the GPs are required to collect the vaccine vials from the Health Ministry’s storage facilities, store the vaccines at their clinics and administer the jabs all according to a schedule,” he said in a statement.

Dr Subramaniam said most of the participating GPs have already undergone the required training to conduct the vaccination programme.

"All participating GPs will also be required to purchase medical grade cold boxes, refrigerators and electronic temperature data loggers at their own cost to participate in the programme. The cold box costs around RM300 to RM450 each, the temperature logger at around RM130 to RM400 each and the fridge at RM1,000 to 4,000 or higher.

"Many private GPs have expressed their support for the programme while some have even volunteered their services to assist the ministry in Phase 3 when mass vaccinations will take place at ministry vaccination centres nationwide,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam added that MMA is now ironing out some of the programme’s logistical issues with ProtectHealth, and hopes all participating GPs will be able to begin administering the vaccinations at their clinics by early May.

"We propose that the vials instead be delivered to the participating clinics to prevent long queues and crowding at the collection centres, which we hope can soon be sorted out.

"Similarly we also propose a dedicated hotline be set up for GPs to consult the government’s health clinics or the emergency departments of the hospitals in the event of any adverse event following immunisation,” he said.

The hotline will enable the GPs to communicate, triage and consult the ministry, instead of referring all such cases to the emergency departments.

ProtectHealth’s platform will also be linked to the MySejahtera app, which Dr Subramaniam said is a good move by the ministry since it will enable all records to be up to date much quicker while cutting down on any repetitive, administrative tasks that may potentially cause delays.

"We also propose for the process automation for consent by patients instead of manually generated printed formats which will take up a lot of time and resources. Exceptions can be given to senior citizens or those not well versed with online submission.

"At the rate of 90 vaccinations over three days per week, each GP will be able to conduct 360 vaccinations per month. We believe more GPs will be enrolling once the programme is finalised and we target a participation of 5,000 GPs to conduct 150,000 vaccinations per day based on 30 vaccinations per day at each clinic nationwide,” he said.