CodeBlue

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — The Ministry of Health’s (MOH) nursing workforce shrank by 1.7 per cent from 2023, losing 1,200 nurses in two years by the end of 2024. According to MOH’s Health Facts, the ministry recorded 71,434 nurses in 2022, before reducing to 70,240 in 2023 and further falling to 70,234 in 2024. The 2023 decline was the first since 2018 when the MOH lost 556 nurses then, less than half the number of 1,194 nurses lost in 2023.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s announcement that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is developing a workplace mental health policy is necessary. This reflects an important step in recognising that mental health as a broader workplace and public health issue. In this rapid and digitalised era, many experience work-related stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression.

Malaysia’s health care system is approaching an important turning point. As the population ages and chronic diseases become increasingly common, hospitals are facing growing pressure from rising admissions, longer stays, workforce shortages and escalating costs. These challenges have prompted an important question: does every patient requiring hospital-level care necessarily need to remain within hospital walls?

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — A petition has called for contract extensions or permanent positions for 437 assistant environmental health officers (PPKP) as their contracts are set to end on July 23. The petition by Nizam Raof said 437 non-sponsored or outsourced PPKPs nationwide have been serving the Ministry of Health (MOH) for nearly five years since the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have gained extensive experience, training, and a high level of competency in carrying out our duties throughout the country.

We are now seeing fewer devastating infections due to the robust childhood immunisation programme enforced by most nations. However, one of the threats faced by children and families is the persistence of infections that are associated with childhood respiratory tract problems, as well as wheezing disorders. One of these is Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Night shifts and double-shift duty are among factors contributing to burnout among nurses and assistant medical officers in the Ministry of Health (MOH), according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study. Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the study also identified traumatic workplace incidents and workplace conflict as contributing factors.

I’ll start off by saying that I know this is an extremely unpopular opinion in the medical fraternity, but it needs to be said. The problems in our national health service have gone past the code blue stage requiring resuscitation and are now existential. The Ministry of Health’s (MOH) doctor workforce declined in 2024 in an historic contraction, losing more than 1,400 doctors after over a decade of annual expansions.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” Yet in Malaysia, we are doing something far more reckless. We are borrowing the future from our elderly, and leaving them with nothing but empty promises. A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Multiple patients or their family members have complained about waiting for up to eight hours at Miri Hospital’s emergency department for treatment. Earlier today, a person posted on Threads about waiting for seven to eight hours at the Sarawak hospital’s emergency unit. “Do we need to normalise such long waiting hours?

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Rising costs of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) could affect medicine prices and treatment costs in Malaysia’s private health care sector, including clinics and community pharmacies, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).