KLANG — The cabinet’s decision to shelve the Health Ministry’s (MOH) Waktu Bekerja Berlainan (WBB) or shift system pilot project was not a “flip-flop” as it had not even received the go-ahead for implementation, minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said.
He defended the cabinet’s move from criticism that MoH had made a U-turn, stressing that the information about the WBB pilot had leaked when no green light had been given for its execution.
“To those who have questioned why the WBB is not considered a ‘flip-flop’, it is because I had yet to make a final decision on its implementation,” Bernama quoted him saying today.
“It is still in the pilot project phase, and at that time (it was announced) it faced criticism from everyone.”
He said he explained to the cabinet that the distribution of a circular containing guidelines for the WBB’s pilot implementation had been leaked, adding that this was a mistake which led to disputes.
“When the leak happened, doctors across the country questioned why they were not involved. This sparked a problem, as they demanded to be involved,” he said.
“I raised this issue with the Cabinet. After I explained the situation, the Cabinet decided that I should cancel the WBB pilot project. I will continue with the study to get views from all parties,” he said.
On Jan 24, Dzulkefly issued a statement to announce the cabinet’s decision to shelve the WBB pilot project to make way for a more in-depth and comprehensive study.
The cabinet agreed that more comprehensive engagement with all relevant parties is needed, he said today when giving his winding-up speech at the 2024 Amanah National Convention, today. Dzukefly is the party’s vice-president.
To facilitate the study, MOH has established a special committee, chaired by former Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Abu Bakar Suleiman.
The decision to halt the WBB pilot for certain public healthcare facilities followed a heated town hall meeting between doctors through the Malaysian Medical Association and MOH.
The pilot project aimed to reduce doctors’ workload and place them on purportedly more reasonable shifts, but then denied payment of on-call allowances for weekday graveyard shifts.
It was reported that among the pilot project’s faults is that night shifts on weekdays after 5pm are counted as part of the 45-hour work week, thus making doctors ineligible for on-call allowances during these hours.
The WBB also considered work only on weekends and public holidays as “on-call”, which was deemed unfair to those who work on night shifts during the weekdays.
Additionally, doctors have also rallied against the on-call allowance rate of RM9.16 per hour, which has not changed since more than a decade.
At the same time, doctors rejected the proposed shift changes under the WBB due to inadequate staffing in public hospitals which would compromise patient care. – January 26, 2025