Materia Medica Malaysiana

Chua: Private doctors must volunteer and not just talk

KUALA LUMPUR: Private medical practitioners should not pay mere “lip service” in helping to resolve the shortage of doctors in government hospitals, Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek said.

He said these doctors should offer their services to the public sector, just as they had pledged during a dialogue with the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia here last week.

“At the meeting, the doctors said they were willing to help in public hospitals, but I hope there will be more this time. When we asked for their services three years ago, only eight doctors came forward,” he said after launching the inaugural World Blood Donors Recognition Day at the National Blood Centre here yesterday.

Dr Chua said private hospitals had 8,000 doctors and 9,000 beds, as compared to the public sector’s 9,000 doctors and almost 32,000 beds.

“There are 8,000 doctors in the private sector and if each doctor can spend two hours per day (in government hospitals), that will amount to 16,000 hours or over 500 working days,” he said.

He also said the ministry would introduce a mechanism to overcome the shortage of nurses and medical support staff in public hospitals.

“Doctors in private service complained that there was a lack of nurses and medical support staff in public hospitals and that was why they were reluctant to offer their services there,” he said.

There are now over 20,000 vacancies in public hospitals, which include positions for 3,300 doctors, 5,000 nurses, 700 medical specialists, 600 pharmacists and 500 dentists.

Earlier, the minister presented awards to 16 frequent blood donors and 17 blood donation campaign organisers.

Dr Chua said blood donations in the country had increased by almost 110% since 1992, from 202,241 units to 423,046 units last year.