NINETY-eight percent of the 57,355 elective surgeries in the backlog at government hospitals nationwide was cleared at the end of last month, Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today. 

The backlog, which Hisham said was one of the immediate consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, was due to the postponements over the last two years as hospitals closed operation theatres (OTs) and freed up more beds for Covid-19 cases. 

He said hospitals started clearing the backlog when more OTs were opened and more hospital beds were made available for surgical patients. 

“With the improved vaccination coverage of the population, the Covid-19 admission rate began to go down. This resulted in the reopening of more operation theatres,” he said in his address at the Academy for Silent Mentor Tripartite Conference on “Healthcare Challenges in the 21st Century” in Kuching, Sarawak, today. 

Hisham also said extending the hours of OTs by having weekend surgeries, mass surgery initiatives, and collaborating with universities, armed forces and private hospitals were some of the initiatives government hospitals took to speed up the clearing of the backlog. 

Among the noteworthy initiatives taken this year, he said, were mass urology surgeries at Selayang Hospital; mass cataract surgeries at Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II in Kota Baru, Tawau Hospital, and Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan; and a mass surgical carnival and cleft surgeries at Tawau Hospital. 

Hisham also said the Health Ministry has a partnership with IHH Healthcare hospitals in providing gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy to patients under the ministry. 

Of the 2% of cases left, cases from certain disciplines such as cardiothoracic surgery and paediatric surgery face long waiting times due to the limited number of surgeons, nurses and paramedics, he said. 

For paediatric surgery, Hisham said, most of the cases on the waiting list are hypospadias cases. 

Hypospadias is a birth defect in boys in which the opening of the urethra is not located at the tip of the penis. – December 14, 2022.