Materia Medica Malaysiana

Some IJN staff losing heart

PETALING JAYA: The plan to make the National Heart Institute (IJN) a world-renowned heart specialist centre could hit a roadblock following a disagreement between its new management and long-serving clinical consultants.
The plan, which included raising bonds to form a special purposed vehicle (SPV), restructuring IJN into several new subsidiaries and initiating changes to its non-medical management and clinical structure, has ruffled feathers among IJN staff.
It is understood that several long serving senior consultants are planning to leave and this has caught the attention of the Government as IJN consultants have long been associated with monitoring the health of the country’s leaders.
The recent resignation of one of IJN’s top consultants has also raised questions.
IJN personnel, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, said they were not consulted on most management decisions affecting the running and direction of the heart centre.
They feared that the some of the new developments could change the core objective of IJN, which was to help the public get quality cardiac treatment at an affordable price.
“We are concerned about the social aspect of IJN, which may take a backseat should IJN become too commercialised,” one consultant said.
Staff members had also queried the management over the “sweeping and rapid” changes which they felt could affect local patients and bring about a shortage of qualified personnel such as doctors and nurses.
One consultant also questioned a management move to hire nearly 20 non-medical staff, saying their jobs were previously handled by just three people.
“IJN is currently making money and it should continue its main objective of serving the public,” said another senior staff member, pointing to the more than RM100mil in cash that IJN currently has. The staff also said it was inappropriate to expand IJN now in view of the shortage of critical personnel.
IJN chief executive Mohd Radzif Mohd Yunus, who was appointed in Sept 2003, had brought in two advisors on contract to deal with human capital organisational development and strategic management.
Staff at the centre also contend that some of the changes by the management were unnecessary and had eroded the consultants clout.
IJN was formed in July 1992 as part of the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital and was corporatised two months later, the first government hospital to do so.
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was instrumental in its establishment following his coronary bypass surgery in 1989 at KLGH.