She will also meet with the directors of the state health departments and hospitals at the end of this month to find out their actual situation.

“I will be meeting healthcare workers on my own, and Insyallah, on Feb 28, I will be meeting with directors of hospitals and state health departments to listen to the problems (facing the public healthcare system),” she told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Zaliha was responding to a supplementary question by Dr Kelvin Yii (PH-Bandar Kuching) on whether the ministry will be meeting with healthcare workers to get an insight into the challenges they face.

She also said the ministry would like to recruit more healthcare workers to overcome the shortage of staff in public healthcare facilities, but lacked the funds to do so.

A survey conducted by health portal CodeBlue recently revealed that healthcare workers had complained about being overworked and underpaid.

They also complained about being severely understaffed in the public health sector, burdened with too many key performance indicators, and not being properly compensated for the heavy workload.

Yesterday, the Malaysian Medical Association also said that healthcare workers have reached their limits, adding that the issues faced have “been around for years and with little or no change”.