An unprecedented, acute shortage of nurses in both private and public hospitals is hurting patient care, said the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia.
As such, its president Dr Kuljit Singh is urging the government to take urgent steps to bring in foreign nurses to plug the gap.
"We urge the government to facilitate training more nurses and making the processes to be trained in post-speciality basics seamless, with better incentives for local nursing schools.
"In the meantime, there should be an immediate effort to have foreign nurses brought into Malaysia, regardless of whether they are post-basic specialised trained or not," Kuljit said in a statement yesterday.
He added that the nursing sector is facing a brain drain, with many locally-trained nurses heading to countries which are offering attractive packages for nurses to work there.
Kuljit said in private hospitals, the shortage of nurses is causing delays in admitting patients and forcing those who cannot wait for medical care to public facilities, even though they can afford private care.
This, he said, is further burdening the public healthcare system, which is also facing a similar shortage of nurses.
Last May, the Johor government said the state was facing a shortage of at least 15,000 nurses. The border state is losing nurses to neighbouring Singapore, where nurses are paid as much as specialist doctors in Malaysia.
In February, the health minister then, Khairy Jamaluddin, acknowledged the shortage and instructed the ministry to conduct a study on the matter.
On a related matter, Kuljit urged the government to take steps to use private hospitals to screen non-communicable diseases, to free up resources in public hospitals and cut waiting time.
"The strength of the private hospitals in assisting the government in managing patients who are awaiting treatment beyond reasonable time through the public-private partnership, which should be strengthened and continued as it was successfully conducted during the peak of the pandemic.
“This aspect was not mentioned in the previous government’s Budget for 2023," he said.
To make way for Covid patients during the peak of the pandemic, the Health Ministry transferred non-Covid patients to private hospitals and footed the bill.
Kuljit added that private hospitals are ready to partner with the ministry to strengthen public healthcare at reasonable rates.
For example, he said, IHH Healthcare Malaysia had recently offered free cancer treatment for 500 patients selected from the public sector. - Mkini
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