More than a thousand private healthcare workers were accidentally omitted from the list of proposed personnel who should receive early Covid-19 vaccination.
This was due to an oversight by the Association of Private Hospital Malaysia (APHM) which has promised to rectify the mistake.
Thompson Hospital CEO Nadiah Wan took to Twitter this morning to raise alarm about how APHM had “inadvertently” failed to include staff from her hospital in its list to the Health Ministry.
She was concerned that her staff will miss out on the government's Covid-19 vaccination programme for frontliners.
Nadiah, when contacted, told Malaysiakini that her hospital had submitted a list of 1,145 people to APHM last month as requested.
“This includes foreign cleaners, doctors assistants in clinics and all employees with full designation so that the Health Ministry can decide who to be prioritised for Phase 1 and Phase 2,” she said.
She urged other private hospitals to confirm if their staff had been included in APHM’s list to the ministry.
The association is collecting names from its 140 or so member hospitals nationwide and sending them to the ministry to be considered for the earlier phases of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
'Those omitted will be added'
Speaking to Malaysiakini, APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh admitted the Thompson Hospital error and said remedial actions were being made “immediately”.
“We are rectifying the list.
“Those who have been missed out are being added. The ones left out were few and we will make sure no private healthcare worker is left out of the list,” he said.
Kuljit also shared that APHM had offered to compile names of staff of its member hospitals but not for the other 60-odd unaffiliated private hospitals.
There are 210 registered private healthcare centres in Malaysia.
“We are doing our best in this trying time and are happy to work it out to rectify (the problems),” he stressed.
The oversight has also received attention from the government.
Public health special adviser to the prime minister Dr Jemliah Mahmood raised the omission of private hospital staff from APHM’s list at today’s Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force meeting.
“Apparently some other private medical centres may have also been missed out. Could APHM please check?” she tweeted.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who is overseeing the vaccination rollout, similarly called for the issue to be resolved.
“Hope APHM rectifies their oversight and sends your (Thomson Hospital) list to us, stat,” he said, also on Twitter.
- Mkini
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