Materia Medica Malaysiana

Overloading at QEH

Kuala Lumpur: The nationwide re-deployment exercise of doctors and nurses involving 117 government hospitals has been prompted by “overloading” as experienced in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sabah.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said the failure to distribute manpower based on “actual workload” has resulted in either under-utilisation in some hospitals or “overloading” in others.

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

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

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.

Increase in 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 177 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 undergo the same exercise.

Malaysian Medical Association President Datuk Dr N. Arumugam said that redeployment would be a complicated process.

“It will make some difference but it will only ease the problem slightly.

There are doctors who are idling in some places. They should be shifted only if the bed occupancy rate is constantly low and not fluctuating,” he added.

On the Ministry’s statement that it had repatriated between 10% to 20% of 700 foreign doctors because of sub-standard performance, Dr Arumugam said problems emerged when the doctors were placed in smaller hospitals and expected to do a wide scope of jobs.

“We have had complaints on the language problem. There is also a need to restudy the salary structure, which is not fantastic compared to that of developed countries.

“The selection process of up to six months is also a long time and the candidates might take up posts elsewhere,” he added.