ALOR STAR: The Health Ministry has been urged to cut red tape to resolve the shortage of medical staff in public health facilities.
Consumer Association of Kedah president Yusrizal Yusoff said the ministry has to take drastic measures to improve health services by reducing waiting periods for patients.
"Previous governments have developed many new hospitals to address the issue of congestion in public hospitals.
"Sadly, we have yet to see any significant improvement in our health services. In fact, the situation is worsening due to certain bureaucracies in the hospitals.
"Patients have to wait for a long period of time to secure an appointment with doctors while those seeking treatment are subjected to prolonged wait.
"Thus, the onus is on the Health Ministry to cut red tape in order to resolve the medical staff shortage issue," he told the New Straits Times when contacted.
Yusrizal expressed concern about the situation despite the huge budget approved by the government for the health sector every year.
Therefore, he urged the ministry to come up with a contingency plan to address the shortage.
"Doctors and medical staff are the fundamental requirement for health services, but sadly, we don't see it is being managed well.
"They should have been redeployed to hospitals when there is a shortage of doctors.
"If there is shortage of nurses, the ministry could have mobilised locum staff to fill in the void. There has to be a backup plan to address this pressing issue," he said.
Yesterday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad directed Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan to immediately redeploy house officers (HOs) to district hospitals in need.
In a posting on X, Dr Dzulkefly said the ministry is implementing various short- and long-term improvement measures to address complaints.
He had said this when responding to a viral social media images of medical staff's messages, written on a whiteboard at a hospital in Kedah, apologising to patients for prolonged waiting times to see a doctor.
Earlier today, Padang Serai member of parliament Datuk Azman Nasruddin and Kulim assemblyman Yong Chia Zhen said the Kulim Hospital urgently needs more medical staff and better facilities to serve the growing population in Kulim and nearby areas.
They pointed out that the hospital also needs a new building to accommodate the increasing number of patients.
On May 10, Dr Dzulkefly announced that the ministry was carrying out a comprehensive study on human resources planning to ensure that the development of its health workers is aligned with infrastructure development.
He had said it was imperative to ensure that infrastructure development such as hospitals are in tandem with the growth of specialist doctors and supporting staff such as nurses.