THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) urged the Health Ministry (MOH) and Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) to conduct a mapping process to ensure enough number of doctors and specialists are distributed in hospitals.
“Both agencies must conduct mapping to look into the actual trend in general and subspecialty cases in each state and plan the human resources needs accordingly.
“Also, state health departments must plan around the allocations of junior medical officers (floaters).
“And the workforce must not be centred on temporary workers but planned with permanent allocations to the hospitals and departments,” its president Dr Koh Kar Chai said in a statement.
Yesterday, Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) claimed that the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) is expected to have shortage of medical officers (MOs) in the coming weeks following exit of junior doctors starting July 18.
The group tweeted an internal letter signed by the hospital’s deputy director (medical) Dr Marina Abdullah Sani on June 30, to mention the matter.
“HKL’s senior management found that there will be a crisis of shortage of MOs at HKL and the Tunku Azizah Hospital following the exodus of junior medical officers (floaters) from HKL beginning July 18,” Malaysiakini reported them as saying.
Stop brain drain
However, the MOH dismissed the matter and claimed that the memo issued was for “internal coordination” to ensure the delivery of its health services would continue smoothly, especially at HTA’s emergency department.
“And we have already planned for new MOs from other states to be transferred to HKL and HTA on the same date that junior doctors currently attached to the hospitals are transferred out,” Free Malaysia Today reported MOH as saying.
Touching on the matter, Koh urged the MOH to look into the cases of medical officers quitting early seriously as the nation was losing out on invaluable human capital it desperately needs.
“While caring for the rakyat, doctors too need adequate rest. If they are on call every other day, it will result in burnout,” he concluded. – July 2, 2022
