The Malaysian Insight

THE Health Ministry’s failure to organise a response to the Covid-19 epidemic has resulted in frontline health workers being worked to the point of exhaustion, said doctors, likening their treatment to that of migrant factory workers.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insight on condition of anonymity, they said the ministry has not learnt anything from its experience of the past 10 months.

They said the ministry’s apathetic attitude, especially towards the Covid-19 hospitals, has resulted in health workers being overworked and their welfare neglected.

They warned the healthcare system is at breaking point as the daily cases pile up.

“It has reached a point where we feel just like foreign workers in factory,” said a doctor who identified himself as Ariq.

He said the doctors are working 14 hours a day.

He blamed this on the ministry’s bad planning and failure to listen to the doctors on the ground.

Ariq said the ministry should have prepared all government hospitals to treat coronavirus patients instead of designating them to selected hospitals.

“That way, the burden would have been shared by all.”

He said the health workers are getting about six days off a month despite the long hours they are forced to put in.

“The government says it is worried about the mental state of those who are forced to work from home. What about us then? There are cases of borderline depression among us. It looks like no one cares about us.”

Another doctor who wished to be known as Ruben said the ministry and his superiors at the hospital are under the impression the doctors could manage everything on their own.

He said there are days he has to tend to 200 patients.

Another frontline doctor, Rachel, said she felt she was being taken advantage of and that the government was not bothered about her safety and interests.

“The standard operating procedures (SOP) are changed frequently just so they can win the people’s hearts but what about us, those who are risking our lives on a daily basis?

‘You can do something else’

Dr Mustapha Kamal recently posted on Facebook that he and his colleagues were burnt out.

The disappointing thing is that, he said, there was no support from their superiors.

“I was at a breaking point which made me apply for three days of MC and I was shocked at the reply I got from the person in charge,” he wrote.

He shared a screenshot of a message from his superior which said he “can do something else” if he is not keen to do Covid work.

“I have seen my colleagues fall down, my teammates in and out quarantine. Most of us are burnt out.”

Another doctor in an open letter to the media said that they had no spare rooms available to rest during their short breaks and had not been receiving any food supply as promised.

He added that they were forced to skip meals because they were too busy to eat, and that hospital cafeteria was closed by the time they were done.

Even getting food delivered was a hassle as they would have to get out of the personal protective equipment suits to receive their orders, he added.

Last week, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia’s healthcare system was at its breaking point as government hospitals were unable to support over 3,000 new cases daily.

Muhyiddin said 15 hospitals were seeing utilisation rates of more than 70% of non-intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

In the Klang Valley, the take-up of ICU beds for Covid-19 patients at Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre have reached maximum capacity, while Sungai Buloh Hospital has reached 83% of its total capacity.

The government has issued a movement control order for Penang, Selangor, the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, Malacca, Johor, Sabah and Kelantan until January 26.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases continue to rise. Malaysia has reported more than 165,000 cases and 619 deaths. – January 20, 2021.