Malaysia will investigate a bungling hospital which has seen one newborn baby kidnapped and scandals over the gender of two others, Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said.

The Sungai Petani Hospital in Kedah made headlines this week for the third time in four months after a newborn baby's sex was registered as "doubtful" and the traumatised parents were forced to wait for three days until the gender was determined.

"There were doctors and specialists who were not very committed in carrying out examinations as soon as the babies were born. We will investigate why only a day or two later did they do such checks," Chua was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

Chua said his ministry had discovered weaknesses in the handling of new births and efforts were being made to improve the situation.

He said the embattled hospital had become "very famous for the wrong reasons" and action would be taken, although he did not elaborate.

"The ministry sympathises with the victims for the ordeals they were put through. The question now is how are we going to overcome the weaknesses prevalent there," Chua said.

Fazrina Daud, 31, and her husband Ahmad Hassan, 58, had a few tense days after the gender of their baby born on September 7 was classified as "doubtful." They had been told in the delivery room that the child was a girl.

The hospital apologised for the delay in the identification, which was subsequently confirmed as female through chromosome tests, although no medical details were released on why the confusion had occurred.

Kidnap incident

Newspaper reports quoted doctors as speculating that the child's genitals may have been enlarged.

In August, a nurse mistakenly reported the gender of another baby as male instead of female, prompting the unhappy parents to claim their baby had been swapped.

The hospital was also at the centre of attention in June after a nurse kidnapped a newborn baby from the maternity ward.

The child's distraught parents threatened to sue the hospital, claiming medical authorities did not act until four hours after the disappearance.

The baby was finally found at the nurse's home after a three-day hunt that captivated the nation.