LETTER | I am a specialist in a government hospital and hold various posts in professional bodies and associations.

After listening to the townhall on Jan 17, I have decided to summarise how the Health Ministry has been systematically neglecting and bullying government doctors:

Confusing statements

The recent circular on “Waktu Bekerja Berlainan” (WBB) was signed and stamped by a ministry official with a date of release and date of execution of the policy. Simply telling us that this was a “proposal and not confirmed” is obviously not telling the truth.

It reminds me of how the ministry made up a false example of a “Dr Ali” with a high salary to confuse the public into thinking that doctors are being unreasonable.

Disrespect

Organising a town hall within 24 hours after a social media outcry is hardly a sincere effort to engage doctors. Organising it after policymaking also reflects the approach of our administrators in listening to doctors on the ground.

The health minister stated during the town hall that “the DG is like a Hindustan hero - might lose in the first few rounds but will eventually win”. Such jokes are completely distasteful and show a complete lack of respect towards government doctors.

Selective policymaking

It is no secret that the number of doctors is reducing, given the data from the Malaysia Medical Council that house officers reporting for duty are dropping at an alarming rate.

Does it make sense then, to even pilot a policy that requires additional manpower? How would this work in all other hospitals even if the pilot project succeeds?

And if a department has an abundance of doctors to run this new system - that proves that maldistribution is truly present among hospitals.

Haphazard engagement

The “engagement” that was done with medical officers over one year is debatable. I do not believe that true engagement was done - and stakeholders like the associations representing doctors were not called together.

45 hours of work

With the excuse of reducing workload, the suggestion of 45-hour weeks has been brought up.

To properly execute this - MOH needs to compensate for every hour worked more than these 45 hours. If not then we should revert to the old 24-hour calls but with increased on-call claims.

18-hour shifts

Two hours of rest within 18 hours is completely impractical and cannot be applied to doctors of many disciplines who work based on patient load.

How can you expect a surgeon to take a break halfway through surgery? Can you tell a baby to stop being delivered because you need to take your one-hour break?

I suggest the 18-hour shift be enforced for all government departments - perhaps all counters can be opened from 3pm to 9am the next day with a similar WBB system.

Hidden restrictions

Hidden within the WBB system is also a sentence that requires doctors to work 33 hours when they are covering a colleague who is ill or cannot work.

You would have to work overnight till the next day 5pm to claim an active call, and if you go home at 9am you would only qualify for a passive call despite having been at work for 24 hours.

It is obvious that the Health Ministry is not sincere in actually reducing working hours.

Unwilling to spend money

At the end of the day, the government is unwilling to spend more money on doctors. If not, the RM200 on-call claim can simply be increased to RM255, or RM220 to RM285, you get the idea. 

Increase it for all doctors, in all hospitals. There is no need to waste one year doing “libat urus” - it can be done in minutes. But due to the lack of money (or lack of willingness to spend that money) - we now have a “cost savings” policy.

Brain drain

Brain drain is set to further increase after this. The general public can expect longer waiting times, suboptimal care, delayed surgeries and perhaps even increased medical errors due to the lack of healthcare manpower.

Whatever justification was given for this impractical policy, this fact stands - doctors are unhappy and more will choose to leave government service.

To be accountable and responsible for all these failures, the health minister, the director general and those in the top administration of the Health Ministry should resign immediately.

Do not make a mockery of our public healthcare system - make way for leaders who are more capable and sincere in engaging all stakeholders for the sake of the country’s healthcare system.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.