KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — Sungai Buloh Hospital paid today the outstanding April and May salaries of junior doctors posted from three university hospitals to help with the Covid-19 epidemic.
The hospital management confirmed that 31 contract medical officers from university hospitals had reported for duty at Sungai Buloh Hospital, Malaysia’s main Covid-19 treatment centre, in stages from March 20 until April 3.
The university hospitals are Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Hospital UKM (HUKM), and Hospital USM (HUSM), all under the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
However, Sungai Buloh Hospital, a Ministry of Health (MOH) facility, said it only received documents related to staff salaries from these public university hospitals after the last salary payment date this month.
“Sungai Buloh Hospital management will meet with all contract medical officers today itself,” Sungai Buloh Hospital said in a statement that Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali sent to CodeBlue.
“For your information, management has made salary payments on 22 May, 2020, to all officers involved.”
Two doctors from a university hospital posted to Sungai Buloh Hospital confirmed with CodeBlue that they have received their overdue wages today, just ahead of Hari Raya this weekend.
Sungai Buloh Hospital was responding to a CodeBlue report published this morning about an estimated 30 contract medical officers posted from UMMC, HUKM, and HUSM to the MOH hospital last March, complaining that they had yet to receive two months’ salaries and allowances, even though other staff received their May wages on May 14.
One of the young doctors affected claimed that Sungai Buloh Hospital management had said their April and May salaries might only be paid in June.
Sungai Buloh Hospital management also explained today that all 34 new contract medical officers — including the 31 from university hospitals — were briefed on human resources management, finance and payroll, and Covid-19 management during their orientation session upon reporting for duty.
Sungai Buloh Hospital also provided accommodation and psychological counselling services to the doctors. The orientation session included a brief explanation on the necessary documents to be prepared for salary payment too.
A Higher Education Ministry official told CodeBlue this afternoon that the contract medical officers from the university hospitals were MOH staff.
Boo Su-Lyn contributed to this report.
