Sabah is hiring more medical professionals to boost healthcare services.
The Health Ministry intended to strengthen Sabah’s hospitals by transferring 514 medical personnel to the east Malaysian state by year’s end, according to Khairy Jamaluddin’s White Paper to revamp the country’s healthcare system.
12 dentists, 28 dental specialists, 21 pharmaceutical officers, 168 nurses, 175 medical officers, 110 specialists in various medical professions, and
This was one of the improvements, according to the health minister, that will help Sabah’s public health services.
Of the entire 28,257 positions open in the state, 2,483 vacancies still existed as of today, according to the paper Khairy presented during the town hall meeting in Kota Kinabalu.
Khairy delivered his keynote message digitally from Labuan rather than in person as planned as his flight to the state capital was diverted there due to inclement weather.
He explained to the audience that the plan also called for modernising hospitals to offer more specialised services.
For instance, Queen Elizabeth Hospital II should contain at least 20 specialised departments instead of the 13 it now has. The same is true of the 11-bed Bintulu hospital.
In Sabah and Sarawak, five minor specialist hospitals—Keningau, Lahad Datu, Limbang, Sarikei, and Sri Aman Hospitals—would be transformed into major specialist hospitals, each of which will offer 20 specialised services. They expect to soon have 49 specialists working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan, and Tawau Hospital.
Six hospitals have also been recognised as needing an upgrading to minor specialised hospitals, three in Sabah and three in Sarawak.
Ten specialised services were proposed for the Kota Marudu, Beaufort, and Tuaran hospitals in Sabah and the Serian, Mukah, and Lawas hospitals in Sarawak.
According to the Rembau MP, it would cost an additional RM1.5 billion for the government to build at least one comprehensive health clinic for each of the 30 districts in Sabah and Sarawak that lack these facilities.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had before stated that Sabah’s vast terrain made it difficult for the government to deliver high-quality healthcare to everyone. The difficulties in providing comprehensive healthcare included a lack of finance, resources, and labour as well as outmoded technology.
Sabah has a doctor for every 1,872 people, compared to 1:441 nationwide. One dentist for every 7,000 people in Sabah, against one dentist for every 2,816 people nationwide, indicates a greater lack of access to dental care. Sabah also has some of the nation’s highest rates of maternal mortality and underweight children.
