Selangor Journal

Quality objectives of Armed Forces Hospital’s three hat departments not achieved

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — The quality objectives of health service management in the three departments of the Armed Forces Hospital (HAT) were not achieved due to the lack of manpower and the heavy workload of medical officers.

According to the Auditor-General’s Report (LKAN) Year 2021 Series 1, quality objectives at the Military Medical Department (JPT), Tuanku Mizan Military Hospital stipulates that 70 per cent of the reports from the Senior Medical Officer of the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) be completed within a month, but was not achieved in the years 2018 and 2021 due to the demanding daily workload of medical officers.

According to LKAN, the medical officers have to conduct annual health checks on 25 to 30 personnel and 12 to 15 senior officers every day with the limitation of only one specialist doctor.

“For the year 2021, medical officers were caught up in unexpected assignments such as being assigned to the treatment of Covid-19 patients and the vaccination programme implemented by this department,” according to the report.

The report also found that the quality objectives at the Medical and Orthopedic Specialist Clinic and HAT Anesthesia Unit of the Royal Malaysian Navy Base (RMN) in Lumut, Perak, were not achieved due to the need for specialist doctors to make routine visits to the ward before treatment can be administered at the clinic.

The Medical Specialist Clinic and the Orthopedic Specialist Clinic of the RMN Lumut Base pre-set that as much as 80 per cent of patients be given treatment within a period of 90 minutes from registration to seeing a specialist doctor but this was not achieved in 2018 until 2020 while the Anaesthesia Unit at the same hospital did not achieve the quality objective of ensuring that 90 per cent from the list of elective cases started anaesthesia before or at 8.30am for the period 2018 to 2021.

The report found that the hospital’s specialist doctors and surgeons needed to go to the ward prior to services in the clinic being carried out and the situation caused specialists to start the routine in the specialist clinic and operating room late, thus affecting the treatment time for patients while appointments were still recorded manually.

Following that, the audit recommended HAT, the Health Services Division of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence take action to review the workload of the medical team to improve the quality of service delivery.

The audit also recommended that the staffing needs be reviewed before each HAT division can achieve optimal service, in addition to using hospital information systems to record patient information in replacing manual methods.

“(But) Overall, the audit found that HAT service management was implemented efficiently and effectively to achieve its objective of providing health services to MAF residents and their dependents,” according to the report.

— Bernama

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