00:00This morning, I want to hold this press conference to touch on the issue of the situation of workers in the public health care system of our country.
00:18For your information, last week, on Tuesday, I raised an issue related to the Ministry of Health.
00:31In my question, I want to know, from the Ministry of Health, how many professional doctors and medical workers have been established?
00:43And also, how many medical workers are forced to be reduced in order to replace them?
00:58So, from the answer I received, based on the analysis of the Ministry of Health data, as of 30 June 2024,
01:1043,392 medical workers have been established in the Ministry of Health,
01:19which includes 8,470 medical professionals, which is an increase of 49.6% compared to 4,273 medical professionals in 2012.
01:35Meanwhile, 34,922 medical professionals, which is an increase of 34.4% compared to 24,310 medical professionals in 2012.
01:55Based on this answer, if we look at it in detail, this figure seems to be astonishing.
02:07However, I have a few questions that I would like to ask.
02:12First, how many of these positions have actually been filled, based on the answer from the Ministry of Health?
02:20Based on an answer from the Ministry of Health, as of July 2024,
02:29the average number of medical professionals who have been appointed in the last 10 years,
02:38is an average of 199 people every year.
02:42This means that in the last 10 years, almost 2,000 medical professionals have been appointed.
02:53So, this is a large number.
02:56What is even more astonishing to us is that in 2023, which is last year,
03:03a total of 359 medical professionals have been appointed, which is far more than the average number.
03:1410 years ago, the average number was 1,199.
03:18This means that more than 200 people have been appointed.
03:21However, just last year, there were already 359 people.
03:26This means that there is an increase of more than 50%.
03:29So, this is one concern for us.
03:32Second, the issue that I would like to raise is how these doctors are distributed throughout the country.
03:41If we look at the Malaysian Medical Association,
03:48which has several times raised the issue of inequality.
03:53I emphasize, the issue of inequality.
03:56The distribution of doctors between health facilities and the country in the last two years.
04:02So, as an organization that represents the largest number of doctors in this country,
04:08there is a reason why they continue to fight for the distribution of digital human resources in health care.
04:16Where, if we look at the Health Facts for 2023,
04:23which was published by the Ministry of Health,
04:26we found that in Malaysia, as of December 2022,
04:33there are 71,798 doctors in Malaysia.
04:41So, based on this figure,
04:45and also based on the answer given by the Ministry to me,
04:52this shows that the Ministry of Health is experiencing a serious lack of professional efforts
05:01with almost half of the doctors having left the public health services.
05:09So, these are the two issues that I would like to raise.
05:13First, is there a full responsibility?
05:17It seems that there is not.
05:18Because every year, there are many doctors who are in charge.
05:22Second, we see that among the doctors in Malaysia,
05:27almost more than 50% have left the public health services.
05:33So, this is a very serious issue.
05:37Because if we look at the statistics,
05:40almost 50%, which is 48.9% of Malaysians,
05:47have received outpatient care.
05:54This means that out of 100 people, 49 will choose to go to a government clinic or hospital for outpatient care.
06:06However, those who receive in-patient care are higher, which is 74.7%.
06:17This means that out of 100 patients, 75 will choose to go to a government clinic or hospital.
06:30So, looking at these figures,
06:35I am sure that this is about how we can provide public health services that are good for the people.
06:45We will face a big challenge.
06:48We see that because of the high demand,
06:52doctors in government clinics are forced to work overtime.
06:59I will give you an example.
07:01Today, a doctor will be on call from 8am to 5pm.
07:10After working for 9 hours,
07:16he has to be on call until 8am the next day.
07:23This means that he will be on call for 15 hours.
07:26And as we know, because of the high demand,
07:31even though he is on call,
07:33he is still working full-time at the hospital for 15 hours.
07:40After he is on call until 8am,
07:46he will continue to be on duty.
07:51He will be on duty until 5pm,
07:55plus another 9 hours.
07:58This means that a doctor will be on duty for at least 33 hours.
08:08So, this is a very long period of time.
08:1733 hours.
08:18This means that he will be under pressure to do his job.
08:27This is an incident where a doctor lost his life
08:34because he was forced to work overtime.
08:42So, we can see that The Star,
08:46in October 2016,
08:48also published an article
08:51that shows us that
08:54at the end of 30 hours on call shift,
08:56the doctor urges that this should be fixed.
09:02If a doctor is on duty for more than 30 hours,
