![]() What an act of self-sabotage, especially during a time when manpower is sorely needed!Īphas since come and gone. To add insult to injury, this JKNS representative has told several officers on separate occasions to reach Sarawak by the deadline regardless the means OR choose to resign from service. Zero consideration was given to the circumstances – we were told that medical officers who were unable to present themselves within a week of the official reporting date would be charged with Failure to Report for Duty, and consequently face corresponding disciplinary actions. Never mind that Sarawak was across the South China Sea from Peninsular Malaysia, with no available flights for the majority of us! Of the few medical officers who managed to get through to JKNS, the unsympathetic voice of a representative from the manpower department flatly brushed off any explanations given. This would not have been an issue for us medical officers, save for the lack of adequate notice and time for preparations as well as the lack of available flights to Kuching. The JKNS representative verbally informed that deferments were only allowed up to a week, instead of the usual two weeks. JKNS eventually responded to an official letter of request for deferment submitted via one of the hospitals only on the night of Ap(Friday). We were thus left hanging and unsure as to the possibility of postponing our date of reporting, despite the aforementioned logistical and transport issues. The haphazard implementation of this relocation exercise was compounded by the lack of response from the Sarawak State Health Department (JKNS) to queries seeking clarifications.Ī huge number of us had frantically attempted to contact JKNS via email or phone, to no avail. ![]() ![]() Some officers who managed to secure the last few flight seats to Kuching from their previous places of practice paid north of RM2,000 (about half of our monthly salary!) without any official guarantee of possible reimbursement of relocation costs. This would have been a tall order under normal circumstances, but with the limited number of flights entering Sarawak during the Covid-19 pandemic, obtaining a flight ticket to Kuching from certain cities was outright impossible. The notice to report for duty ( surat penempatan semula) was provided only on Ap(Wednesday), with the date of reporting set for April 19, 2021. However, there exists human limits to our abilities to answer this call. ![]() Redeployment from our home states to Sarawak to serve on the Covid-19 frontlines, donned in suffocating full personal protective equipment for hours on end just to ensure our patients recover as soon as possible – that is our calling and duty. The vast majority of, if not all, doctors in Malaysia have signed up for the medical profession fully expecting a lifelong career of selfless service. Just to be clear, there is no dispute over the necessity of such a reassignment, given the huge spike in number of daily Covid-19 cases reported in Sarawak. This swift and decisive action by the minister is applaudable, but it marked the start of a logistical nightmare for 126 medical officers reassigned from various states across Malaysia to serve Sarawak. Shortly after, he declared that 430 Ministry of Health personnel will be sent to Sarawak to assist in the region’s Covid-19 response. Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, visited Kuching, Sarawak, on April 12 to take stock of the Covid-19 pandemic situation in Sarawak.
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