Profile of General Practices in Malaysia

Abstract

In this survey all practices under the headings of “Clinics”, “Medical Practitioners” and “Medical Practitioners - Registered” in the Yellow Pages telephone directories for the thirteen states of Malaysia were selected. Those excluded were clinics or medical practitioners who advertised themselves as specialists in other disciplines. A total of 2291 practices were surveyed and a response rate of 51.2% was obtained. 383(33%) of the general practitioners were trained locally for the first degree. 258(22%) had at least one postgraduate qualification. 69(6%) possessed a postgraduate qualification in primary care medicine. About 80% of general practitioners participated in continuing medical education and 4% did research in the last 3 years. 42% were involved in community activities. 75% ran solo practices. Over 90% of the practices opened six or seven days a week. The mean workload per doctor per day was 44.66. Most practices provided a comprehensive range of services including curative, preventive, dispensing services, counselling, laboratory tests, and home visits. 43% of practices had a computer.