KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) has urged the government to conduct a comprehensive probe into the issue of lack of doctors in several government hospitals.

Its president Datuk Adnan Mat said the matter did not only involve the issue of medical practitioners’ welfare but also the ability of the national health facilities to provide the best service to the people.

"We have faced a situation during the Covid-19 pandemic that nearly paralysed our national health facilities.

"The government should take the experience as a lesson to strengthen the mobilisation of health officers in various levels to avoid health facilities operating without adequate staff, as some have been ordered to work overtime to make up for the shortage.

"They are humans who need enough rest, to carry out healthy social activities and they have families that need their attention,” he said in a statement today, commenting on a viral photo of a whiteboard at a health facility that apologised to patients for long waits of up to five hours due to the lack of doctors.

He added that Cuepacs hoped there would be no action taken against the individual who wrote the note on the whiteboard and advised that the matter needed to be tackled positively without neglecting the grouses aired for the welfare of civil servants.

Cuepacs takes the entire issue seriously and does not want the welfare of medical practitioners to be neglected to ensure that health services carry on as usual, he said, adding that all department heads need to play a vital role to overcome the shortage of officers by channelling the issue to senior officials in the Health Ministry to ensure that the lack of personnel can be addressed as soon as possible. — Bernama