KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The Malaysian Medical Council has the right to suspend or dismiss any medical practitioner found to be involved in the sale of fake medical certificates (MCs), says Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye (pic).

He said it would be an offence if medical doctors issued MCs without medically screening their patients and they were also at risk of being removed from the list of medical practitioners.

"Investigations will be made against the medical practitioners (if they were involved). If they are not medical practitioners, then action taken will be under the jurisdiction of the police.

"If the MC is issued without a doctor's knowledge and the doctor is able to prove that he or she is not part of that (syndicate involved in issuing MCs), he can lodge a complaint.

"But what we (at the ministry) need to do is (to) ascertain if the doctor is part of the syndicate (or otherwise)," he said Wednesday (May 1).

He said this in commenting on the arrest of six individuals, including two civil servants, suspected of being involved in the sale of fake MCs after several raids were conducted around Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim was reported to have said that police inspected three houses occupied by the suspects and seized 4,631 MC chits from government hospitals and private clinics in the raids.

Earlier, Dr Lee, who officially launched the 25th Blood Donation Campaign organised by Kwan Inn Teng Temple in Petaling Jaya, said the programme in collaboration with the National Blood Bank (PDN) was one that should be emulated by other blood donation campaign organisers.

He said the temple had set up an integrated system to ensure that the blood donation process was a smooth one, apart from encouraging more people to donate blood held yearly on May 1 for more than two decades.

"I have been informed that the campaign had collected more than 27,000 bags (of blood) in the last 24 years. This is an astonishing contribution to society and mankind and for today, the organisers are targeting to collect 2,000 bags," he said.

Also present was PDN Director Dr Noryati Abu Amin. - Bernama