Most recently, a psychiatric patient became agitated and stabbed an elderly man at Selayang Hospital in Selangor on Tuesday, after being left at the hospital’s accident and emergency department while waiting for a bed to become available.
Earlier in February, Malaysia’s Health Minister Zaliha Mustafa said that emergency departments (ED) at public hospitals were severely overwhelmed.
“Frontline staff here are struggling because patients who were supposed to be admitted were stuck in ED. Delays in admissions have an adverse domino effect,” she wrote on Twitter after making a field visit to public emergency departments, adding that the issues faced by the public emergency departments were “inherited and systemic”.
HEALTHCARE WORKERS’ CONCERNS NOT ADDRESSED
The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Muruga Raj Rajathurai has since called on the government to seriously address the issues raised by the public healthcare workers.
The New Straits Times reported on Wednesday quoting Dr Muruga as saying that the issue of reforms should not be the sole responsibility of the health ministry, but also of the finance ministry and the Public Service Department (PSD).
“Many of the issues, especially involving its human resources, will require budgeting and planning by the Finance Ministry and the PSD. Members of Parliament from both sides of the divide should also support efforts to reform the healthcare system,” Dr Muruga said.
He added that among the issues that need to be addressed include overcrowding at the healthcare facilities, manpower shortages, as well as the issue of underpaid and overworked workers. There were also not enough permanent positions to provide doctors on contract with secure employment, the New Straits Times reported Dr Muruga as saying.
“The alarm bells on the healthcare system and its human resources being stretched to the limit have been ringing for years. In the last four years, there have been three changes in government.
With every new cabinet line-up and administration there was renewed hope but none were able to resolve their issues,” Dr Muruga was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.