Govt to place resident specialists in Sabah hospitals, says Dzulkefly
Malaysia's Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad announced plans to place resident specialists in rural Sabah hospitals to address staffing shortages. The ministry is also expanding outsourcing to private providers to reduce patient wait times and congestion.
Why it matters
Improving healthcare access in rural regions is a major policy challenge for developing nations, directly impacting public health outcomes.
Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the health ministry has also aggressively expanded the Hospital Services Outsourcing Programme initiative to the private sector to address congestion in public hospital lobbies and wards.
PETALING JAYA: The health ministry is taking several immediate measures to overcome the shortage of specialists in Sabah, says Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The health minister said it will begin with the placing of resident specialists in several hospitals in towns such as Kota Marudu and Beaufort, Bernama reported.
He added that the effort also complements the ministry's initiative to move specialist rotation to rural areas in Sabah.
"The ministry's three- to five-year target is to bridge the expertise gap in Sabah through the empowerment of the Sandakan and Tawau Clusters to the same level as Kota Kinabalu, including cardiothoracic services," he said in a Facebook post today.
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