The Cabinet’s decision to cancel the proposed Waktu Bekerja Berlainan (WBB) shift system is disappointing, but expected in light of the strong opposition and lack of support demonstrated by key stakeholders, particularly medical officers in government service.
The formation of a special task force to develop recommendations to strengthen the overall delivery of health services, particularly workforce issues is long overdue. However, the call for equitable increases of on-call allowances for all relevant health care workers remains unanswered.
The task force, chaired by former Health director-general Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman and formed through a mandate from the Cabinet, is a unique opportunity.
This issue is not just about ensuring fair and equitable compensation on on-call services, and better scheduling of working hours. It would be a mistake to reduce the recent controversy to these two issues.
Though the task force is not expected to perform miracles or provide immediate solutions to long-standing institutional issues, it is an opportunity to properly recognise, address and properly respond to the ongoing workforce crisis caused by vicious cycles of unmanageable workloads and burnout driving increasing numbers of staff out of the health service.
These issues not only affect doctors but also other health care workers such as nurses, who recently spoke out against their 45-hour work week under the SSPA shift system. What about them? This is not just about doctors. Each day, dozens of specialists, doctors and nurses submit their resignation letters.
How do we ensure that the health services are able to continue to provide quality and safe care to patients in the face of excessive workloads, a diminishing workforce, punishing and unreasonable rotas, and rising demand?
Tired doctors are more likely to make mistakes. It will be unsafe and unsustainable. We need long-term solutions and recommendations, and the resources and political will to implement them.
The task force should not take more than six months to complete its task.
Unfortunately, the decision on increasing on-call allowances for health care workers, which was expected to be addressed in this Cabinet meeting, appears to be in limbo with no resolution in sight. Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s statement does not address this.
In fact, it is likely to be further delayed pending findings from this task force. A current recommendation involves increasing the hourly on-call rate to RM25. The current rate at RM9.16 per hour is equivalent to the rate earned by a barista working at a coffee retail outlet in Malaysia. A part-time server in a restaurant can earn up to RM15 per hour.
The government must effectively act and address the workforce crisis the health service currently faces. Most importantly, it must make a deliberate and sincere effort to consult, listen and involve the personnel on the ground, particularly affected health care workers.
Azrul Mohd Khalib is the chief executive of the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
