Materia Medica Malaysiana

Doctors and nurses to be redeployed

KUALA LUMPUR: A nationwide re-deployment exercise of doctors and nurses involving 117 government hospitals is underway to serve the people better.

“Last year, 61 of the 117 hospitals nationwide had a bed occupancy rate of below 50%, the lowest being Hospital Daro in Sarawak with 9.8%.

“This is in contrast to those filled to the brim, like the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sabah with 99% bed occupancy rate and over 1,000 outpatients daily,” he said in an interview here yesterday.

Dr Chua attributed this to the rigid deployment method used – one doctor for 28 beds and one doctor for 50 out-patients daily.

He said a minimum of seven doctors have been allocated for each district hospital but some have up to 10.

The mushrooming of hospitals in recent years further aggravated the “so-called” shortage of some 3,000 doctors and 4,000 nurses in the country, he added.

There are 11,500 doctors and 28,000 nurses in the government hospitals nationwide.

Dr Chua said construction of new hospitals would also be put on hold for the Government to focus on the consolidation exercise.

The 117 hospitals have 28,633 beds with 5,456 beds available in special medical institutions like Pusat Tibi Negara, Hospital Bahagia, Hospital Permai, Hospital Bukit Padang, Hospital Sentosa and RCBM Sarawak.

“Deployment from now on will be based on the actual workload,” he said, adding that transfers would be confined within the state to reduce the impact on those involved.

Nurses would soon undergo the same exercise, he added.