The Ministry of Health(MoH) must consider calling a call for a open townhall to address the resistance and confusion from their planned implementation of the Waktu Bekerja Berlainan (WBB) pilot shift system and get inputs from all stakeholders to address the human resource management and distribution issues facing the healthcare sector.
This townhall should involve representative from the different doctor groups including the Malaysian Medical Association(MMA), Hartal, Malaysian Medic International(MMI) and even government hospital directors who eventually are the implementer of such policy in their respective hospitals.
And the decision to implement such policy should be suspended until all relevant stakeholders are engaged and an understanding can be made for the benefit of the fraternity.
Policies must be designed with input from frontline medical officers as their insights are key to developing reforms that are practical, effective, and tailored to the realities of their work environment. On top of that it must be communicated clearly in order to not create confusion and resistance.
While the Minister has claimed that it is a proposal, but there is already a signed official circular from the Ministry on the implementation of such initiative. This necessitates an clear explanation on the rationale of the policy, how it will benefit the doctors and also address some of the legitimate concerns that has been raised.
However the core issue must be addressed especially when it comes to human resource management in the healthcare system. The current healthcare distribution of our healthcare workforce is already struggling to manage the high workloads. Any reduction in work hours without addressing manpower shortages will impact inpatient care and the running of clinics and other hospital services.
This core issues requires all hands on deck to resolve including to find ways the cauterize the haemorrhage of healthcare workers from the service. An independent Health Services Commission could be established consisting of experts from different fields including the Ministry of Health to put all brains together to specifically address this issue before we lose even more of our healthcare workers.
Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen
MP Bandar Kuching
