IN order to reduce crowding and wait times at government clinics and hospitals, the Health Ministry (MOH) will expand the use of the MySejahtera application for making appointments.
“Appointments may be made through MySejahtera for 673 healthcare clinics, and this will gradually be expanded to more hospitals and clinics,” Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reported newly-minted Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa as saying.
“This will allow healthcare facilities to organise their schedules based on their respective capacity and avoid overcrowding at the registration and waiting areas.”
According to Dr Zaliha, the National Health Screening Initiative (NHSI), PeKa B40, and other healthcare programmes for the B40 group as well as outpatient treatment can all be scheduled through appointments.
Starting today, appointment dates for these services in 2023 can be set, cancelled or changed through the MySejahtera, app, according to Dr Zaliha.
However, emergency cases need not be scheduled in advance through MySejahtera.
Dr Zaliha had stated on Monday (Dec 26) that MOH had started developing plans to address the issue of overcrowding at emergency and trauma departments in order to enhance patient care.
Such move was welcomed by the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) which deemed timely intervention and efficient delivery of healthcare services as crucial in saving lives and improving outcomes of patients.
“The emergency and trauma departments are first line care providers for a variety of emergency cases. In these situations, every second counts,” MMA president Dr Muruga Raj Rajathurai pointed out in a statement.
“We are pleased that the minister is adopting a holistic approach to improving the system by looking into the finer details and initiating stakeholder engagements. These are indeed positive developments towards improving the nation’s healthcare.” – Dec 28, 2022
Main photo credit: Bernama
