The 33-hour on-call shifts for government doctors are unreasonable and unfair, says a government backbencher.
Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) said such hours are also unfair to patients, as the services they receive could be affected by the doctors' fatigue.
Citing The Star’s front page report on Oct 16, Khoo also asked how such shifts could still be the norm for government doctors.
Read more at https://shorturl.at/01Mpk
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) said such hours are also unfair to patients, as the services they receive could be affected by the doctors' fatigue.
Citing The Star’s front page report on Oct 16, Khoo also asked how such shifts could still be the norm for government doctors.
Read more at https://shorturl.at/01Mpk
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This morning, I want to hold this press conference to touch on the issue of the situation of workers in the public health care system of our country.
00:18For your information, last week, on Tuesday, I raised an issue related to the Ministry of Health.
00:31In my question, I want to know, from the Ministry of Health, how many professional doctors and medical workers have been established?
00:43And also, how many medical workers are forced to be reduced in order to replace them?
00:58So, from the answer I received, based on the analysis of the Ministry of Health data, as of 30 June 2024,
01:1043,392 medical workers have been established in the Ministry of Health,
01:19which includes 8,470 medical professionals, which is an increase of 49.6% compared to 4,273 medical professionals in 2012.
01:35Meanwhile, 34,922 medical professionals, which is an increase of 34.4% compared to 24,310 medical professionals in 2012.
01:55Based on this answer, if we look at it in detail, this figure seems to be astonishing.
02:07However, I have a few questions that I would like to ask.
02:12First, how many of these positions have actually been filled, based on the answer from the Ministry of Health?
02:20Based on an answer from the Ministry of Health, as of July 2024,
02:29the average number of medical professionals who have been appointed in the last 10 years,
02:38is an average of 199 people every year.
02:42This means that in the last 10 years, almost 2,000 medical professionals have been appointed.
02:53So, this is a large number.
02:56What is even more astonishing to us is that in 2023, which is last year,
03:03a total of 359 medical professionals have been appointed, which is far more than the average number.
03:1410 years ago, the average number was 1,199.
03:18This means that more than 200 people have been appointed.
03:21However, just last year, there were already 359 people.
03:26This means that there is an increase of more than 50%.
03:29So, this is one concern for us.
03:32Second, the issue that I would like to raise is how these doctors are distributed throughout the country.
03:41If we look at the Malaysian Medical Association,
03:48which has several times raised the issue of inequality.
03:53I emphasize, the issue of inequality.
03:56The distribution of doctors between health facilities and the country in the last two years.
04:02So, as an organization that represents the largest number of doctors in this country,
04:08there is a reason why they continue to fight for the distribution of digital human resources in health care.
04:16Where, if we look at the Health Facts for 2023,
04:23which was published by the Ministry of Health,
04:26we found that in Malaysia, as of December 2022,
04:33there are 71,798 doctors in Malaysia.
04:41So, based on this figure,
04:45and also based on the answer given by the Ministry to me,
04:52this shows that the Ministry of Health is experiencing a serious lack of professional efforts
05:01with almost half of the doctors having left the public health services.
05:09So, these are the two issues that I would like to raise.
05:13First, is there a full responsibility?
05:17It seems that there is not.
05:18Because every year, there are many doctors who are in charge.
05:22Second, we see that among the doctors in Malaysia,
05:27almost more than 50% have left the public health services.
05:33So, this is a very serious issue.
05:37Because if we look at the statistics,
05:40almost 50%, which is 48.9% of Malaysians,
05:47have received outpatient care.
05:54This means that out of 100 people, 49 will choose to go to a government clinic or hospital for outpatient care.
06:06However, those who receive in-patient care are higher, which is 74.7%.
06:17This means that out of 100 patients, 75 will choose to go to a government clinic or hospital.
06:30So, looking at these figures,
06:35I am sure that this is about how we can provide public health services that are good for the people.
06:45We will face a big challenge.
06:48We see that because of the high demand,
06:52doctors in government clinics are forced to work overtime.
06:59I will give you an example.
07:01Today, a doctor will be on call from 8am to 5pm.
07:10After working for 9 hours,
07:16he has to be on call until 8am the next day.
07:23This means that he will be on call for 15 hours.
07:26And as we know, because of the high demand,
07:31even though he is on call,
07:33he is still working full-time at the hospital for 15 hours.
07:40After he is on call until 8am,
07:46he will continue to be on duty.
07:51He will be on duty until 5pm,
07:55plus another 9 hours.
07:58This means that a doctor will be on duty for at least 33 hours.
08:08So, this is a very long period of time.
08:1733 hours.
08:18This means that he will be under pressure to do his job.
08:27This is an incident where a doctor lost his life
08:34because he was forced to work overtime.
08:42So, we can see that The Star,
08:46in October 2016,
08:48also published an article
08:51that shows us that
08:54at the end of 30 hours on call shift,
08:56the doctor urges that this should be fixed.
09:02If a doctor is on duty for more than 30 hours,
09:09I think that is not patient,
09:12not fair to the doctor,
09:14and also not fair to the patient.