KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong told the Ministry of Health (MOH) today to address the issue of overworked doctors in the public health service amid staff shortages.
The DAP lawmaker cited the case of Dr Ch’ng Hooi Ping – a UD43 medical officer (MO) from the paediatric department of Seberang Jaya Hospital in Penang – who was found dead last June 27 in her car in the parking lot of the government hospital, with fluid in her lungs.
Dr Ch’ng’s sister reportedly attributed the 31-year-old doctor’s death to overwork, citing 30-hour on-call shifts. She said there were no signs of mental health problems or bullying.
“Today, we are again reminded of the human toll of this crisis,” Khoo said in a statement.
“Twist it all you want, but the typical medical officer’s on-call journey begins the day by punching in at 8am, completing the day’s duties at 5pm (9 hours). They then begin their on-call shift immediately till 8am the next day (15 hours). They do not get to go home immediately, but have to continue working till 5pm to complete the day’s work (9 hours) for a total of 33 hours.
“This is 2024. How can we allow this to happen? How can we call this humane when our doctors are being pushed to the brink of exhaustion, putting their lives and the lives of their patients at risk?”
At the Dewan Rakyat last Thursday when commenting on Dr Ch’ng’s death, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad disputed allegations of insufficient staff at Seberang Jaya Hospital, citing consultant paediatrician Dr Musa Mohd Nordin’s claim that the MOH hospital had 30 MOs in the paediatric department in August, more than the optimum number of 25.
Dr Musa is a paediatrician at a private hospital in Selangor.
In several posts on X, a person told Dr Musa that Seberang Jaya Hospital isn’t a small district hospital, but a “small building with a patient load so high even medical wards are a fire hazard and are full to the brim”, where four MOs manage a ward of 40 patients in the medical department.
The person, who claimed to be a health care worker, said Seberang Jaya Hospital is a major referral centre for mainland Penang and Kulim, Kedah.
He noted that Seberang Jaya Hospital has 14 neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and manages nearly 100 babies or more in the special care nursery (SCN) alone. The public hospital also has a full paediatric clinic and two full paediatric wards, “half of which deal with children with complex medical problems.”
“Ward reviews are done manually. IN FULL CLERKING. We don’t write 10-lined reviews but are expected to review ‘properly’. Discharges are not 1-page forms but dissertations,” said the person.
“Seberang Jaya is a manual hospital. No HO (house officers) or phlebotomists. MOs do everything, from typing 8-page long NICU summaries to doing multiple NICU rounds per day to trying to settle SISPAA complaints – ours is one of the highest in the region.”
The person also said doctors should know “what an edematous lung in a young sudden death without HOCM means.” HOCM is hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.
“MOH Paeds the most well organised? In comparison to Africa maybe. Wake up! Fellow HCW to fellow HCW, don’t be a dinosaur.”
Citing the minister’s written reply in the Dewan Negara last July, Khoo said about 199 specialist doctors resigned from the public health service annually on average in the last 10 years, reaching a peak of 359 resignations last year. Nearly 2,000 specialist doctors quit in a decade.
“From the Ministry’s own Health Facts 2023, we know there are a total of 71,798 doctors in Malaysia as of 31 Dec 2022. This raises an alarming question: why is MOH experiencing significant brain drain, having almost half doctors who have left the public health care system, contributing to the severe understaffing we are seeing in public hospitals across the country?” Khoo said.
He also asked if staff maldistribution was the main problem affecting doctors’ welfare.
