1.Undang-Undang Jagaan Kesihatan Ibu Di Malaysia: Hak Pesakit Wanita di Hospital Kerajaan
International Journal of Public Health Research 2019;9(1):1025-1042
Introduction Women as patients is a normal situation. However, women patients of the
obstetric and gynaecology category are of a different category. This is because
obstetric and gynaecology patients will be warded in the maternity ward and
labour room according to the needs of their care and treatment. The care and
treatments in the maternity ward and labour room involving the care and
treatments by a special team of trained medical doctors, midwives and nurses
in obstetrics and gynaecology areas of expertise. Hence, the importance of
scutinising the relevant laws and legislations pertaining to the protection of
female patients’ rights when they are utilising the maternity ward and labour
room are fundamental in determining whether such rights existing in our
healthcare services pertaining to pregnant women. Healthcare laws relating to
women’s healthcare and government health policy on pregnant women are
scrutinised to ascertained whether the laws and policy give impact or effect to
the healthcare services rendered, including scrutinising the qualification,
capability and the quantity of obstetric and gynaecology doctors on whether it
fulfils the requirement of the government hospitals’ maternity ward and labour
room.
Methods Doctrinal research method is adopted with applying the empirical approach
whereby interviews and a focus group discussion were held with the O&G
specialist doctors and selected medical officer and staff nurses of Maternity
Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
Results The finding shows that there are already in placed a policy of the Ministry of
Health Malaysia outlining the women patients’ rights in maternity ward and
labour room. However, there are deficiencies from the aspect of law and
government policy wherein there is no specific laws in relation to pregnant
patient rights nor is there a clear policy on women health.
Conclusions The writing concludes that there is a need for a new policy to re-establish
governance in maternity ward and to further enhance health care quality for
women patients hence, to appropriately define the position of women patients’
rights in the government hospital’s maternity ward.
2.Informed Consent in Clinical Trials with Reference to Information Disclosure to Patient-Subjects
Yuhanif Yusof ; Anisah Che Ngah ; Zaki Morad Mohamad Zaher
International Journal of Public Health Research 2014;4(1):384-390
The aim of this study was to examine the aspect of information disclosure by doctor-investigator during the process of obtaining informed consent in clinical trials. This research employed a mixed-method data collection that is library research and interview. A qualitative methodology and analysis were used in an open-ended, face-to-face interviews with 17 patient-subjects. The interview questions were based on information that needed to be disclosed to patient-subjects during the process of obtaining informed consent. Each interview took place in Kajang Hospital and National Heart Institute and lasted 25-30 minutes. Interviews were conducted in Bahasa Melayu and English. The interviews were tape-recorded, and the main points from the interviews were jotted down to ensure that all information was adequately gathered. Interviewed occurred in Kajang Hospital and National Heart Institute. The participants were patients who had been referred to the Kajang Hospital and National Heart Institute. They were recruited (8 from Kajang Hospital and 9 from National Heart Institute) by their own doctors to participate in a study to evaluate the safety and effectivenes of the investigational stent after been diagnosed with coronary artery disease and also in a study to investigate drug for antidepressant. respectively. The study revealed that doctor-investigators fail to disclose full information to patient-subjects. Instead, doctor-investigators only disclosed information which they thought were necessary for the patient-subjects to know. The study also showed that there were doctor-investigators who did not disclose information at all to the patient-subjects. This study implies that the aspect of information disclosure in the process of obtaining informed consent in clinical trials is rather poor and did not fulfill the criterion of good medical practice. A random monitoring task to be conducted by the research ethics commitees during the informed consent process is suggested.