Sarawak: The Health Ministry (MoH) is in the final stages of addressing several issues, including bureaucratic constraints affecting the training and development pathways for medical specialists. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the ministry had identified several bottlenecks that needed to be resolved to expedite efforts to produce more specialists.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Dzulkefly stated awareness of potential bureaucratic constraints and assured that these issues are being addressed. The minister made these remarks at a press conference following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the MoH and Sarawak Energy for the construction of the Bakun-Murum Health Clinic.

Dzulkefly's comments follow reports that Malaysia faces a shortage of approximately 11,000 medical specialists nationwide, impacting both the public and private healthcare sectors and raising concerns over the public healthcare system's capacity to meet growing demand.

Plans to increase the number of specialists within the ministry are being implemented in phases and are aligned with infrastructure development. Dzulkefly highlighted that the expansion of the specialist workforce is synchronised with improvements and additions to healthcare infrastructure, ensuring a progressive and continuous increase based on current needs and priorities.

The MoH is adopting a cluster crisis management system as an interim measure to address existing challenges while more comprehensive solutions are being finalised. This approach involves collaboration among hospitals within the same cluster and health clinics, including the redeployment and reorganisation of healthcare personnel according to operational needs, ensuring uninterrupted healthcare services.