KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — Waiting times for non-cancer elective surgeries range between two weeks and 13 months in Ministry of Health (MOH) health care facilities, according to Dzukefly Ahmad.
The health minister also told Puncak Borneo MP Willie Anak Mongin in a written Dewan Rakyat reply last Thursday that elective procedures for cancer cases had a waiting time of one to six weeks, with the MOH setting a target wait of not more than four weeks.
“Among the surgical disciplines that record a longer wait time are cardiothoracic surgery, paediatric surgery, and urology. This is due to human resource constraints, especially the number of specialists in those fields that is still limited compared to service demand,” said Dzulkefly.
He explained that priority for surgery is given to emergency cases. For elective procedures, patients need to undergo pre-surgery evaluation and preparation, including blood tests; diagnostic tests; radiology exams; and other related clinical evaluation to ensure the suitability and safety of surgical treatment.
Separately, in a July 14 written reply to Kuala Langat MP Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi, Dzulkefly said 1,928 specialists, including 279 subspecialists, were registered from July 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026, following the enforcement of the Medical (Amendment) Act 2024.
These included 11 cardiothoracic surgeons, 10 paediatric surgeons, and 18 urologists. The top three fields with registered specialists in that period were anaesthesiology & critical care (110), emergency medicine (110), and family medicine (256).
Surgical fields were far fewer: general surgery (57), neurosurgery (19), cardiothoracic surgery (11), paediatric surgery (10), and plastic surgery (10).
These figures relate to specialist registration; not all are working in the MOH as some may be working in the private sector.
