PETALING JAYA: Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad has reiterated his commitment to tackle issues affecting nurses in the public healthcare system, appealing for more time to deal with them.
Dzulkefly credited nurses with being the backbone of Malaysia’s health system, and said he hopes to resolve issues involving their salary scale, welfare and positions.
“Give me a bit more time to handle these issues more thoroughly,” he said in a brief post on X in conjunction with International Nurses Day.
Earlier today, his deputy Lukanisman Awang Sauni presented Tokoh Jururawat awards to Sapiah Abdul Hadi (Services), Catherine Pero (Education) and S Kalyani Sangaran (Community Welfare) at a ministry event.
Lukanisman said the theme for this year’s celebration “the power of economic care” was chosen to show how strategic investment in nursing could deliver economic and societal benefits.
“Investment in healthcare, particularly nursing has economic benefits such as increased productivity, reduced healthcare costs and increased social welfare,” he said.
Last week, the health minister reportedly said there was an acute shortage of nurses in hospitals, with this shortage projected to reach “close to 60%” by 2030.
Dzulkefly said many nurses were either migrating abroad or leaving the healthcare sector as a whole, acknowledging a need to retain the workforce in hospitals.
Citing a Malayan Nurses Union survey last month, Utusan Malaysia had reported that nurses in Malaysia were earning less a month than their counterparts in the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia.
The union’s president, Saaidah Athman, had called for the starting salary for public hospital nurses to be raised from RM1,800 currently to RM2,000, as well as the introduction of new allowances as done in other countries. - FMT
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