JEDDAH: Johor Darul Ta'zim's (JDT) hopes of becoming the first Malaysian club to reach the AFC Champions League (ACL) Elite semi-finals were dashed after a narrow 1-2 defeat to defending champions Al-Ahli on Friday (April 17).
Time stands still: This file picture shows patients waiting for their appointments with consulting doctors at a public hospital.PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has set a Key Performance Indicator for the Emergency Department, but some hospitals are still struggling with meeting the wait time requirement.
Doctors say the reasons for long wait times are the high patient load, manpower crunch and insufficient facilities such as space and beds. In a Dewan Negara written reply dated March 4, the Health Ministry said the median waiting time for a bed at the department was 144.4 minutes. “For the period from July to December 2025, national performance reached 83.80% with 119 out of 142 hospitals with Emergency Departments successfully meeting the fixed target,” it said. In a Sabah hospital, patients were recently seen lying on stretchers and placed on wheelchairs while waiting for a bed.A doctor posted in Kota Kinabalu said there is a KPI for the emergency and trauma team at his hospital. A patient in the Green Zone will have to be seen by the doctor within 45 minutes and an hour. For the Yellow Zone, the time frame is 30 minutes while Red Zone patients will have to be seen immediately. The Green Zone caters to patients with minor injuries or those with uncomplicated medical problems, while Yellow Zone means urgent.“Admission to the primary team ward should be within four hours.“But if they are unstable and waiting for over four hours, then we will discuss with the emergency physician and primary team,” he said. A doctor, who serves in a senior management position in Kedah, said the wait time at the Emergency Department can vary between four and nine hours in a tertiary hospital.A physician at another Sabah hospital said a makeshift ward was created “out of nowhere” to accommodate patients.“This is how the wait time at the Emergency Department can be shortened,” he said.However, this also means the team is pressured to speed up and clear patients fast just to meet the KPI. “When there is already a shortage of doctors and staff, this potentially affects patient care,” he added. The ministry acknowledged that wait time challenges were influenced by several complex structural factors, namely rising disease burden, high dependence on the public sector and the shortage of specialists and staff. It has implemented measures to address congestion in government hospitals without imposing additional costs on the public, including gradual capacity expansion through facility upgrades, additional beds, and strengthening healthcare workforce and primary care. “Others include phased digitalisation of the healthcare system to reduce wait times, avoid duplicate testing and expedite registration and pharmacy processes, as well as facilitate the sharing of patient records between hospitals and clinics. “This will streamline patient flow management, support monitoring of hospital bed capacity within the ministry and help control congestion,” it said. Selected specialist services, which are typically available in hospitals, are being extended to health clinics through cluster hospital initiatives integrated with primary care.In addition, several selected health clinics located near major referral hospitals have extended operation hours until 9pm on weekdays, and are open on Saturdays until 1pm to help reduce congestion.
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