KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — MedTweetMY is the latest doctors’ group to protest against the proposed pilot of the Waktu Bekerja Berlainan (WBB) shift system in select government hospitals.
After meeting Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, MedTweetMY, which rarely issues press statements, expressed its “strong” opposition to the WBB pilot project scheduled on February 1.
“MedTweetMY believes that WBB does not solve the root problem plaguing medical doctors in the MOH (Ministry of Health), which is manpower shortage,” MedTweetMY said in a statement last Saturday.
“Besides that, the implementation of WBB is seen to be unfair to doctors because they’re working overtime without receiving an appropriate allowance. Without a solution to this structural problem, WBB can potentially increase current workloads, thus affecting health service delivery and doctors’ mental and physical health.”
MedTweetMY suggested the formation of an independent committee to study alternative work schedules that are more appropriate and fairer than WBB.
“The main function of this committee is to conduct comprehensive field surveys and dialogue sessions with doctors to truly understand their needs and challenges. MedTweetMY believes that hearing the voices of medical doctors on the ground is the key to drafting a solid work schedule policy.”
Prior to MedTweetMY’s statement, the group’s founder and chairman Dr Khairul Hafidz Alkhair posted photos of a meeting by five representatives, including vice-chairwoman Dr Rafidah Abdullah, with Dzulkefly on the WBB issue last Saturday. The health minister reposted Dr Khairul’s post on X.
After MedTweetMY’s meeting with Dzulkefly, Dr Rafidah, who has said that she will “never agree” with WBB, shared the group’s statement opposing the proposed shift system and their group photo with the health minister. “There’s nothing for me to add,” she wrote on Facebook.
Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK), the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), and MMA Schomos have also rejected the proposed WBB pilot project.
The MOH’s statement last Friday – which touted WBB as improving medical officers’ quality of life and welfare by reducing their maximum consecutive working hours from 33 to 18 – was heavily criticised on Facebook.
Out of more than 5,900 reactions, 2,700 were the “angry” emoji while 1,200 were the “laughter” emoji. Only 1,600 reactions (27 per cent) were a “thumbs up” emoji. MOH’s statement on WBB on its Facebook page received over 2,600 comments, which were overwhelmingly negative, and 1,300 shares.
Unlike all of its other events, the MOH did not post photos of its disastrous town hall with government doctors last Friday on WBB. CodeBlue reported that the town hall – where Dzulkefly described the new shift system as a “game-changer” – saw multiple calls on Zoom for the resignations of the health minister and Health director-general Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan. Some also called for a doctors’ strike.
When the emcee called for an obligatory group photo to record “beautiful memories” of the “historic” event at MOH’s Putrajaya headquarters, participants attending virtually via Zoom wrote on the chat box in response, “memori terindah?????” and “detik bersejarah, hotak dia.”
Dzulkefly said updates on WBB would be announced after an MOH leadership retreat in Kuala Lumpur last weekend.
BN, Umno, MCA, DAP, PKR, PAS, And PN Reps Deride WBB
At least seven elected representatives and leaders from political parties on both sides of the divide – Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH), and Perikatan Nasional (PN) – issued statements over the weekend in a bipartisan show of criticism against the proposed WBB system.
Umno Youth and BN Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh, who is also Merlimau state assemblyman from Melaka, said in his second statement on the matter, in response to MOH’s Friday statement, that the main cause of working overtime is a shortage of health care workers.
“The solution we want is to increase the number of health care workers, not reduce working hours,” he wrote on Facebook. “Even guards who work 12 hours get four hours counted as OT, while eight hours are base. But our own doctors working 18 hours won’t get any allowance at all.”
MCA vice-president Lawrence Low said in a statement last Saturday that the WBB system was “unsuitable” for implementation, adding: “It is unjust to withhold allowances for those working 18-hour shifts, as their expertise and dedication are vital to maintaining the integrity of the country’s health care system.”
MCA deputy president Dr Mah Hang Soon described the WBB shift system as not being “aligned with reality”, saying: “Equating work hours at 3pm and 3am disregards the human biological clock and societal norms.”
PAS Youth chief Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden, who is also Alor Setar MP in Kedah, said it was “unacceptable” and “unfair” to have different on-call allowance rates between units that implement or do not implement the WBB shift system.
Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi, chairman of the PN MPs’ Health Committee, perceived the WBB system as a cost-saving measure “disguised” as a promise to improve health workers’ quality of work.
“In reality, this system not only fails to reduce work burdens, but also denies the right of health care workers to receive more appropriate allowances, besides adding physical pressures on already overworked doctors,” said the Kuala Langat MP from Selangor.
Semambu state assemblyman Chan Chun Kuang, who is also Pahang PKR Youth chief, said in a statement yesterday that the WBB shift system could potentially reduce doctors’ take-home pay from their allowances. “Besides that, the new system is seen as impractical because it is less flexible in meeting the dynamic needs of the health sector that consistently faces changing emergency and workload situations.”
DAP’s Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii from Sarawak urged the MOH to halt the planned pilot of the WBB shift system and to table the proposal at the Health parliamentary special select committee first for more comprehensive stakeholder engagements.
The only politician who has come out in support of WBB so far is Senator Dr RA Lingeshwaran, who is also former Sungai Bakap Hospital director. The DAP lawmaker from Penang told critics last Friday to give the WBB system “a chance”, saying the reduced working hours of an 18-hour shift would benefit doctors.
Dr Rafidah posted on X: “3pm to 9am shift is INHUMANE.”
Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib equated 18-hour shifts in Malaysian public hospitals to garment sweatshops in Bangladesh, where workers labour 14 to 16 hours a day.
“Regardless of whether there is compensation, no one should be working 18-hour shifts. It is inhumane, unsafe for the worker, and very likely will lead to patient harm. It is also exploitative,” Azrul posted on X.
Under the WBB system, scheduled to pilot in certain departments at seven MOH hospitals next month, medical and dental officers, as well as specialists, are not eligible to receive the Elaun Tugas Atas Panggilan (ETAP) allowance for 18-hour weekday shifts (3pm-9am) that are considered part of the standard 45-hour work week.
For shifts on Fridays or pre-weekends (3pm-9am), officers can only claim a reduced ETAP allowance (passive call) for the second half of their shift (12am-9am). The first nine hours (3pm-12am) are not additionally compensated, as they count toward the base 45-hour work week.
The higher on-call allowance of RM275 per shift and RM315 per shift for medical officers and specialist doctors respectively only apply to WBB active calls on weekends or public holidays for 15 or more consecutive hours’ work outside regular hours.
This on-call allowance raise (RM55 and RM65 more for medical officers and specialists respectively than non-WBB calls) is only available to departments or units that implement WBB.
