Recent reports suggest that several hospitals across Malaysia are struggling to sustain essential services due to severe manpower shortages.
Hospitals such as Segamat Hospital in Johor and Lahad Datu Hospital in Sabah are among those facing increasing pressure, with staffing deficits affecting medical officers, staff nurses, medical assistants, pharmacists, and assistant medical officers.
One proposed solution has been to redistribute health care personnel within hospital clusters. While this may provide temporary relief, it does little to address the underlying workforce crisis.
Reassigning medical officers from one department to another merely shifts the burden elsewhere and often places inexperienced staff in highly demanding clinical environments.
Health care workers are increasingly being asked to do more with less. Specialists are taking on duties typically performed by medical officers, while nurses and medical assistants frequently cover additional responsibilities to compensate for staff shortages. Long working hours, often exceeding what would be considered sustainable, have become commonplace.
But health care workers are not machines. They require adequate rest, time for family, and opportunities for professional development. Persistent overwork not only affects their wellbeing but may also compromise the quality of patient care.
The consequences extend beyond staff morale. Senior doctors already overwhelmed by clinical duties have less time and energy to supervise and mentor junior colleagues. This raises important questions about training quality, clinical competency, and ultimately patient safety.
Medical errors become more likely when health care professionals are exhausted, understaffed, and stretched beyond reasonable limits. This concern strikes at the heart of one of medicine’s most fundamental principles: Primum non nocere— “First, do no harm.”
The impact is increasingly visible to patients and their families. While some individuals may be able to seek treatment in the private sector, many Malaysians rely entirely on public health care services. These patients often face prolonged waiting times, overcrowded emergency departments, and delays in accessing inpatient beds and specialist care.
Meanwhile, those working within the system continue to shoulder the burden, striving to deliver safe and effective care despite mounting challenges.
Malaysia’s health care system has long been regarded as one of the country’s greatest achievements, providing affordable care to millions. However, sustaining this success requires more than temporary manpower redistribution.
Meaningful solutions must address workforce retention, training capacity, career progression, workplace conditions, and long-term health care financing.
To the government, please consider the following suggestions:
Increase Health Care Funding: Malaysia spends a relatively modest proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care compared with many high-income countries.
Greater investment could help expand hospital capacity and modernisation of the infrastructure. Recruit and retain health care workers, reduce equipment shortages and maintenance delays, and improve digital health systems.
However, funding alone is not enough; allocation efficiency is equally important.
Retain Health Care Workers: One of the most pressing issues is the migration of doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals to the private sector or overseas.
Potential strategies include providing competitive salaries and allowances for the health care workers, clear specialist training pathways, better work-life balance, reduced administrative burden, and improved job security for junior doctors.
Bear in mind, the cost of replacing experienced staff is often much higher than the cost of retaining them.
Reform Medical Workforce Planning: Malaysia has increased the number of medical graduates, but workforce planning remains challenging.
Improvements could include better forecasting of specialist needs, expanding specialist training positions, increasing training opportunities outside major urban centres, and aligning medical school intake with workforce requirements.
Career progression should also be improved for nurses and medical assistants by offering better opportunities for advanced diploma, degree, or higher.
We are not even asking for generous entertainment allowances like how Members of Parliament are receiving on a monthly basis. All we want to be treated fairly as equally. All we want is better quality of life, to keep us motivated to do the job we’re passionate about.
The question is no longer whether the health care system is under strain. The real question is whether we are prepared to make the necessary investments and reforms before the strain becomes irreversible.
The author is a medical officer at Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital in Ipoh, Perak. CodeBlue is providing the author anonymity because civil servants are prohibited from writing to the press.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
