Malaysian doctor ‘turns accident victim away’ as choked hospitals take toll on health workers, patients
- Case of a doctor who allegedly told a patient he was ‘too tired’ to attend to him highlights impact of Malaysia’s stretched healthcare system on both health workers and patients
- Government is seeking to recruit 5,000 new professionals, improve hospital operations as doctors slam ‘ridiculously inhumane’ working conditions in public healthcare
Photos of a packed emergency room at the 153-year-old Kuala Lumpur Hospital recently circulated on social media, showing some patients holding on to their own IV bags, with others sitting on the hospital floor waiting to be admitted. The local Star newspaper described the situation as “a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie”.
Twitter user Syafiq Unzir on January 17 shared that his nephew, who had been involved in a traffic accident, was told by a hospital in rural Kelantan to go home because it was out of beds, and the one in the state capital was also full.
Syafiq added that his family’s concern over the boy’s condition was further dismissed by the attending doctor, who allegedly told them that he was tired and had many more patients to look at.
“‘I am busy’ … (this was) the word that came from a qualified doctor,” said Syafiq, whose post has been viewed by more than 2 million users.
While the Malaysian public have been aghast over these incidents, many are equally sympathetic to the plight of medical workers experiencing burnout after working through the coronavirus pandemic. The outbreak had exacerbated chronic staffing woes and long-standing bureaucratic issues, and many continued facing job insecurity as contract workers as the government refused to place them on permanent contracts.
The pressures drove many doctors to leave public healthcare to work in the more lucrative private sector, with some accepting positions abroad.
