Malaysia did not see any significant drop in the number of nurses despite having gone through various challenges posed by the pandemic, said Matron Devi K Saravana Muthu.

The director of the Health Ministry’s nursing section said the number of nurses that resigned during and after the pandemic was not too significant.

“During Covid-19 and Movement Control Order, our nurses did not go overseas. Those days, it was quite common for our nurses to serve in Saudi Arabia. Now, there is no obvious increase in this and many prefer to work with the government sector,” she told a press conference here today.

The press conference was held after Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian launched the International Midwives’ Day Conference 2023 themed ‘Midwifery Beyond the Horizon’.

Devi was responding to a question following Dr Sim’s remark in his opening speech earlier that Sarawak’s nurse-to-patient ratio was 1:342, and that some nurses chose to serve overseas due to better welfare such as higher pension.

Dr Sim had admitted that in terms of such welfare benefits, Malaysia was not quite there yet, but also reminded that one of the reasons overseas employees could enjoy higher pension after retirement was that they also paid higher taxes.

Earlier, he said there wee 6,596 nurses in Sarawak of which 3,405 had undergone midwifery.

“It goes to show that midwifery is the basic skill required of nurses. In terms of maternal mortality rates, Sarawak’s is similar to the national one of around 20 deaths per 100,000 births.”

Dr Sim added that in order to see more nurses serving in Sarawak, the state had to regain autonomy in health to plan for retirement.

“We fully support the Health White Paper, which will be tabled in Parliament, as it is an important framework nationally and Sarawak wants to do more for health and we want our health autonomy under MA63 back to Sarawak.

“Although the population of Sarawak is small, our area is big. I cannot tell our people in rural areas that they have no right or access to health. It is our duty as the government to provide services to the people. I also cannot tell them to migrate and live in urban areas and subject them to urban poverty,” he said.

On midwifery, Dr Sim said this is an important sector to see a growth of population while he also noted that the industry had improved to go beyond just mothers and babies.

“(Being) born alive is the first step in life. If (born) dead, how to increase world population? You and I owe it to midwifery otherwise we won’t be here.

“Midwifery will continue to progress due to technology like the virtual clinic and so on. We definitely need technology, no question about this, but basic skills must also be there,” he added.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by LIM HOW PIM

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