Frontliners at Sarikei Hospital in Sarawak are experiencing burnout due to heavy workload, according to inside sources, to an extent that some doctors believed they might be better off if they are down with Covid-19.
The sources claimed that frontliners were denied from taking leave since last year and had been clocking in extra hours every week as manpower is spread thin due to the pandemic.
“The hospital would announce whenever staff leave is frozen, but never once did they announce unfreezing it.
“Manpower is so stretched that some of my friends even got stress-related diseases. Very pathetic. Stress-related hair loss, thyroid problem, so stressed that one even had eye problems.
“Mental exhaustion,” said a source, who is a medical officer.
Another source also gave a similar account, saying that the hospital would tell staff members whenever the Sarawak state health department (JKNS) issues an order to free their leave, but it was allegedly kept from them when the department reversed the order.
“We only got to know that JKNS had unfrozen staff leave from friends who work at other hospitals.”
Grouses of healthcare workers at Sarikei Hospital came under the spotlight recently when an anonymous letter, believed to have been penned by a frontliner, went viral.
While the sources who spoke to Malaysiakini said they do not know who was behind the letter, they could attest to most of its content.
“Burnt out healthcare workers are not new to all of us. The alternate-day on-call or working 60 hours per week made all of us physically and mentally exhausted,” according to the letter and confirmed by sources.
'If I get Covid-19, at least I could sleep'
According to one of the doctors, her work performance has dropped but she still had to drag her feet to work.
“I am so tired that when I went to get tested for Covid-19 recently, I wished the test would return positive. Just so I can get some sleep!" said another medical officer.
“You know what I would do if I got diagnosed with Covid-19? I will go home, call my boss to say please do not disturb me, and then I will just sleep.
“But the result returned negative. I was supposed to be happy, but I was not.”
Sources told Malaysiakini that the issues about manpower have been raised to the hospital management, but this had allegedly fallen on deaf ears.
Further upsetting them was when the frontliners learned that a senior member of the management team could take leave recently to send a family member who is furthering her study abroad at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“Can you imagine the pain upon learning about this? When all of us were not even allowed to go back to visit our family?”
Special allowance only paid once
Another issue raised by the anonymous letter and Sarikei Hospital staff members was about the payment of a special allowance promised by the Sarawak state government.
While the state administration had in May announced that Covid-19 healthcare frontliners there would get RM300 a month for six months, they claimed that the payment had only come once.
It was also claimed that some frontliners had to fork out their own pocket money to purchase certain items for use in treating patients.
Meanwhile, Sarikei Hospital director Dr Tey Siew Chang in a statement released last night (Saturday) said they have never stopped staff members from taking leave “if the situation really warrants it”.
“All supervisors have also been instructed to prepare the duty roster accordingly so that officers are not burdened, and to always ensure they have ample rest time,” she said.
The statement was released in response to the viral anonymous letter.
Statement skirted questions
According to Tey, medical officers from each department have been roped in for duties at Covid-19 wards and low-risk quarantine centres after taking into account the minimum number of officers needed.
Duty rosters at Covid-19 wards and quarantine centres were set in a way that each medical officer would do on-call duty after every three days.
“The duty roster is always revised according to the Covid-19 situation and the number of medical officers available at each department from time to time, to ensure those who work at Covid-19 wards, quarantine centres and their respective departments are not exhausted.
“The medical officers would be given a day off after every on-call duty so that they can rest before coming back to work,” said Tey.
The statement did not directly address the allegations about the freezing of leave and a senior hospital management member being allowed to take leave.
She also did not touch on the issue of special allowance for healthcare frontliners.
On the claim that hospital employees have to use their own money to purchase equipment, Tey said Sarikei Hospital has never received any such contribution from hospital officers as alleged.
Instead, she said, they have only received equipment and food contributed by people’s representatives and NGOs. - Mkini
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