KUALA LUMPUR, August 25 — Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii urged the Ministry of Health (MOH) to address complaints by Sungai Buloh Hospital doctors who have yet to receive various allowances.
The DAP lawmaker was referring to an anonymous letter published by CodeBlue yesterday from a Sungai Buloh Hospital contract medical officer, who alleged that medical officers at the MOH hospital have yet to receive their relocation allowance, since they were transferred from other hospitals to Sungai Buloh Hospital five months ago last March to help with the Covid-19 outbreak.
They are now being relocated again this month based on their first choice of placement.
The government doctor also claimed that medical officers at Sungai Buloh Hospital have yet to receive their on-call allowance or Covid-19 special allowance for the month of June.
“This is not the first time,” Dr Yii said in his debate on special allocations to frontliners under the Temporary Measures For Reducing The Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Bill 2020 yesterday in the Dewan Rakyat.
CodeBlue reported last May complaints by some 30 contract medical officers from university hospitals posted to Sungai Buloh Hospital last March about a two-month delay of their salaries and allowances. After CodeBlue highlighted their grievances, the MOH hospital subsequently paid the outstanding April and May salaries of 31 junior doctors transferred from three university hospitals.
“So I hope MOH will take note of this issue and resolve it as soon as possible because although this allowance is just a few hundred ringgit, but for health care workers, it’s a significant amount of money,” Dr Yii added yesterday.
Local daily theSun reported today an official from Sungai Buloh Hospital as saying that it was investigating allegations about its doctors not getting paid various allowances, and that MOH was “already aware of the situation”.
