Ensure sufficient manpower during extended hours at public community clinics, MMA tells MoH

Dr Muruga Raj Rajathurai

KUCHING (Jan 8): The Ministry of Health (MoH) is urged to ensure sufficient manpower for its initiative of extended hours at public community clinics to ease overcrowding at public hospitals.

In making this call yesterday, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Muruga Raj Rajathurai lauded the extended hours at public community clinics as a good move but called for sufficient manpower to ensure successful implementation.

“There must be enough medical officers, specialists, medical assistants, allied healthcare personnel, administrative staff and reasonable shift hours for it to be carried out with success,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Dr Muruga said the extended hours should only cater for simple acute illnesses that do not require specialist care.

He said this is because many of the family medicine specialists at the public community clinics are burdened with a lot of administrative work apart from their clinical work.

“We can’t afford to let this also be an issue contributing to brain drain,” he added.

Dr Muruga asserted that the public will also need to be well informed of which cases will be seen at the clinics and which cases need to be seen at the Accidents and Emergencies Departments to avoid any confusion.

According to him, the additional hours may also mean staff may have to work longer hours and this may run counter to the MoH’s efforts to address burnout among healthcare personnel.

To enhance the initiative further, he said MMA proposed that the private general practitioners (GPs) also be roped in through a public private collaboration.

“MoH will be able to extend its reach through such a move as the 9,000 over private GPs are well distributed throughout the country; which may be more convenient.

“Many of the chronic cases can be referred to private GP clinics and the public community clinics to enable public hospitals to treat accidents and emergencies more efficiently and effectively for better outcomes,” Dr Muruga added.

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