Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru

Monday, March 28, 2005

Dr Ismail Merican is new Health Ministry Sec-Gen

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Dr Ismail Merican has been appointed as Health Ministry director-general following the retirement of Tan Sri Dr Mohamad Taha Arif.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, who announced this Monday, said the appointment was effective March 5, adding that Dr Ismail would serve for two years.

"He is both an administrator and clinician and has represented the ministry in many international conferences. He has a lot of experience," he told reporters after opening the 20th Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress.

Dr Ismail, whose most recent posting was deputy director-general of health in charge of research and technical support, came under media spotlight two years ago for his daily briefings of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) situation in the country.

New salary scheme soon for nurses with post-basic skills


BY Embun Majid & Florence A. Samy

LANGKAWI: The 25,000-strong nursing profession, considered the backbone of the national healthcare delivery system, has received a shot in the arm.

Those with degrees and post-basic qualifications will be placed in a higher salary scale to be implemented soon. An estimated 500 nurses have degrees and another 12,000 have attended one or more post-basic courses.

In the existing scheme under the Malaysian Remuneration System, those with degrees and other higher qualifications are paid the same salary as the diploma holders although they are often given a heavier workload.

Among others, the new scheme is aimed at attracting better-qualified people into the health service, encouraging the existing ones to improve themselves with better qualifications and discouraging them from leaving for greener pastures.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, who announced this yesterday, said the new salaries would be commensurate with their qualifications.

The Government, he added, had approved the new salary scheme but the implementation date had not been decided yet.

"The details and when it will be implemented will be announced later," he said in his speech during his visit to the Langkawi Hospital here.

Chua hoped the new scheme would inspire nurses to equip themselves with more knowledge.

Nurses in the public sector now receive a starting take-home salary of about RM1,200 a month.

Malayan Nurses Union general secretary Siti Azizah Abdul Rahman said they welcomed the move, but urged the ministry to do away with the current age limit of 40 to attend post-basic courses to enable more nurses to acquire knowledge.

"Now those who are 40 and above can’t attend these courses unless highly recommended by their department heads. We want to better ourselves and acquire more skills but we can’t do that when there’s an age limit," she said in Petaling Jaya.

She said nurses with higher qualifications, be it degrees or post-basic courses, were also not given due recognition.

"Of course, the pay increase will come in handy but recognition is important as these nurses end up having the same pay and going back to the same job and position they held before attending the courses.

"This worsens the current shortage as they get frustrated and end up leaving for better jobs overseas or in the private sector where it’s more lucrative," she said.

In February, Dr Chua had said the high failure rate among trainees was one of the main reasons for the shortage of nurses in Government services. The Star


Skim gaji baru untuk jururawat berijazah

Oleh Hamzah Osman

LANGKAWI: Kementerian Kesihatan akan mengumumkan skim gaji baru bagi jururawat hospital kerajaan yang mengikuti kursus lanjutan dan memiliki ijazah.

Menteri Kesihatan, Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, berkata kerajaan pada dasarnya bersetuju dengan skim gaji dan elaun itu dan beliau sudah dimaklumkan secara lisan mengenainya.

Katanya, semakan semula gaji dan elaun jururawat di sektor awam itu yang turut dipersetujui Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) dijangka diumumkan tidak lama lagi.

"Pada masa ini jururawat yang ingin membuat pengkhususan kepakaran dikehendaki mengikuti kursus lanjutan dan mereka menerima gaji seperti jururawat biasa walaupun terpaksa melakukan banyak kerja.

"Bagaimanapun, saya berharap jururawat terbabit bersabar agar impian mereka menjadi kenyataan," katanya selepas lawatan kerja ke Hospital Langkawi (HL), di sini, semalam.

Hadir sama Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Kesihatan, Pembangunan dan Perpaduan Negeri, Datuk V Saravanan; Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Ayer Hangat, Datuk Md Hasan Bulat dan Pengarah Kesihatan negeri, Datuk Dr Zahari Che Dan.

Jururawat di sektor awam ketika ini menerima gaji dan elaun permulaan sekitar RM1,200 sebulan dan boleh mencecah RM6,000 sebulan pada akhir perkhidmatan.

Semakan gaji itu juga dapat membantu Kementerian Kesihatan mendapatkan kira-kira 8,000 jururawat setahun bagi mencapai 130,000 jururawat atau nisbah seorang jururawat untuk setiap 200 penduduk menjelang 2020, berbanding nisbah seorang jururawat kepada 600 penduduk, sekarang.

Ada kira-kira 37 pusat latihan jururawat di seluruh negara termasuk 20 yang dikendalikan pihak swasta mengeluarkan kira-kira 1,000 jururawat terlatih setiap tahun.

Sementara itu, Dr Chua berkata, Kementerian Kesihatan juga bersetuju menyediakan peruntukan bagi membolehkan HL membeli alat Pengimbas Tomografi Berkomputer (CT Scan) bagi mempercepatkan pengesanan penyakit berkaitan otak.

"Pembelian mesin berharga kira-kira RM12 juta itu meningkatkan keupayaan HL mengesan dan merawat penyakit berkaitan otak.

"Lagipun, ketika ini pesakit terpaksa dirujuk Ke Hospital Alor Star," katanya.

Dr Chua berkata, kementeriannya akan turut mengumumkan hasil kajian berhubung tempoh menunggu pesakit di hospital kerajaan seluruh negara.

"Kementerian sedang menyusun data berhubung kajian itu dan akan mengumumkan hasilnya bulan depan.

"Pengumuman itu termasuk hospital mana yang paling lama tempoh menunggu pesakit dan hospital yang paling singkat," katanya. Berita Harian