MMA said the country is short of nearly 11,000 specialists and 14,700 nurses, and that only 529 of the 5,000 medical graduate positions were taken up when offered in March.
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has urged the health ministry to put in place a comprehensive workforce plan before construction begins on a proposed Petaling Jaya public hospital.
MMA said today the country is short of nearly 11,000 specialists and 14,700 nurses, adding that only 529 of the 5,000 medical graduate positions were taken up when offered in March.
It also stressed that the recently completed Pasir Gudang Hospital is yet to be fully operational because of manpower issues.
“A hospital is more than its walls. It is the doctors, nurses and specialists who work inside it. On that front, Malaysia has a problem that we cannot simply build our way out of,” said MMA president Dr R Thirunavukarasu.
“Our hospitals are not short of demand. They are short of staff.
“We have already seen what happens (in Pasir Gudang) when workforce planning falls behind infrastructure development. That was not a failure of construction. It was a failure of workforce planning.”
Thirunavukarasu said the ministry must maximise the existing healthcare resources in Petaling Jaya, which has 12 private hospitals with more than 1,400 beds, as well as more than 450 registered private clinics.
He suggested that the ministry expand its list of about 100 private hospitals which have expressed willingess to accept public patients for services such as cardiology, nephrology, and radiology imaging.
He was responding to a news report in which Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari said the proposed Petaling Jaya hospital will be constructed as a vertical facility with a capacity of 500 beds.
The proposed hospital, designed with a vertical concept similar to Ampang Hospital, is expected to serve residents in Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya and Puchong. No timeline or cost has been announced.

Original source: my