KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — Minister of Health, Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad, has directed the Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan, to immediately redeploy house officers (HO) to district hospitals in need.

Via a post on X today, he stated that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is implementing various short and long-term improvement measures to address complaints.

"I am acutely aware of and deeply sympathise with the grievances of healthcare workers every day and every week. With 147 MOH hospitals and over 3,000 health clinics nationwide, I am bound to receive numerous complaints,” he said.

"Continue sending feedback and criticisms (while avoiding sinful language). I will continue to pay attention and take action while continuing with my various reforms,” he said.

Dzulkefly was addressing the viral social media issue involving images of medical staff’s messages, written on a whiteboard at a hospital in Kedah, apologising to patients for prolonged waiting times to see a doctor.

Meanwhile, Kedah Health (Public Health) deputy director Dr Norizan Ahmad in a statement today said the issue of lack of human resources will be dealt with as best as possible so that the delivery of existing services is not affected.

She said the distribution of human resources at the Ministry of Health (MOH) level in the category of specialists and medical officers in all MOH hospitals is in line with the current workload while the placement of medical officers in a hospital is determined by the hospital director according to the justification and current needs.

In addition, she said the services of the Specialist Clinics at the Specialist Hospital are through a scheduled appointment system to avoid the issue of long waiting time.

"The Kedah Health Department is aware of the viral issue on social media related to a notice displayed at the Specialist Surgery Clinic at one of the Specialist Hospitals in Kedah. — Bernama