PAS: Gov't must stop overworking doctors
The government needs to take steps to ensure sufficient medical officers in the country to avoid overworking them, said PAS Youth information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari.
This follows the case of a doctor who died in a car crash on her way home from Sungai Buloh Hospital on Thursday.
She had worked 36 near-consecutive hours before that, according to a Bernama report.
Ahmad Fadhli ( left ) said it is very likely she was too fatigued to concentrate on driving, which may have resulted in the fatal crash.
"The government needs to act now on the issue of the lack of medical officers to make sure the workload can be better balanced among them," said Ahmad Fadhli in a statement today.
Medical officers, especially young ones, are too burdened with extra work due to lack of staff, he said.
Ahmad Fadhli said the fatal accident on Thursday was not the first involving an overworked and exhausted medical officer.
He added official government data puts the medical officers to residents ratio at approximately 1 to 660.
This falls significantly short of the recommended ratio of 1 to 400 suggested by the World Health Organisation for a developed country, he said.
Ahmad Fadhli also called upon the public and medical professionals to pressure the government to be more considerate of the "inhumane" working hours of medical staff.
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