I am a specialist in a major hospital in Pahang. We are currently facing a shortage of MOs (medical officers) and HOs (house officers).
There are a lot of MOs stationed in Selangor, Sabah, and Sarawak. But the Pahang state hospital covers a larger area than Selangor, or Sabah for that matter.
Yet, our workforce is not enough to run the show.
Specialists are stepping down to do the MO’s job, and MOs are doing HO work.
Bentong Hospital is facing an even worse situation. An MO is doing 12 to 14 on-calls per month, and taking care of two to three wards.
Bentong Hospital is situated in the middle of Karak Highway, and it receives a lot of accident cases.
I don’t understand why there is a discrepancy in terms of human resources being allocated to Pahang state and district hospitals.
Many are overworked and are quitting the government. Those staying are pretty much burnt out, and are undergoing much stress as a result.
The rate of MOs quitting is at least two per month in my hospital at the moment. Many are under psychiatry clinic consultation for stress-related issues and depression.
When is KKM (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia) going to take steps to solve this?
Why is there so much discrepancy in MO and HO distribution? In Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL), there are about 70 MOs in a department, but here, in my hospital, we only have five to six MOs running a department.
We have tried to highlight this issue at the hospital level, but nothing has changed for the past six months.
We hope to get a solution to this matter before many more good MOs and HOs leave the workforce.
Dr K is a specialist at a major public hospital in Pahang. CodeBlue is using a pseudonym because civil servants are prohibited from writing to the media.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
