Cancer centre struggles with shortage of medical officers
A cancer treatment center in Malaysia is facing a severe shortage of medical officers, with current staffing levels at roughly half of what is required to manage the high volume of patients. The resulting workload has led to long wait times and concerns regarding patient safety and staff burnout.
Why it matters
The report underscores the critical impact of medical staffing shortages on the quality and accessibility of specialized cancer care.
A total of 40,198 new cases of cancer was recorded in 2024, with about 110 diagnoses a day. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: A cancer treatment centre is struggling with a shortage of medical officers (MOs), with only four of them seeing up to 90 patients at its day-care on some days.
A doctor at the centre, who asked not to be named, said it needed 45 to 50 MOs to cope with its workload, but only about half that number were currently available to treat patients.
The shortage has become more acute over the past two to three years as some had left but not enough new MOs had been recruited to replace them, the doctor said.
The situation worsens when MOs take medical or study leave or when some of them are given permanent appointments and transferred to other facilities to fill vacancies.
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