KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty-eight of 39 major hospitals nationwide recorded an average waiting time of less than eight hours for ward admission from emergency departments as of June.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad told the Dewan Rakyat today that the hospitals included state and major specialist hospitals handling high patient volumes and referrals from district hospitals.
"This is an improvement compared with 2025, when 55.26 per cent of the hospitals involved recorded an average bed waiting time of less than 480 minutes.
"Meanwhile, 94 of 103 hospitals, including minor specialist hospitals and hospitals without specialists, recorded an average bed waiting time of less than 240 minutes," he said.
He was responding to Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun (PH-Port Dickson), who asked how many government hospitals continued to experience emergency department congestion, including average waiting times for treatment and ward admission, and what concrete measures the ministry was taking to address the problem.
Dzulkefly said the ministry had introduced various measures to improve public healthcare delivery, including monitoring waiting-time indicators.
In the short term, the ministry introduced an outsourcing initiative in 2024 covering 14 services, which has benefited more than 50,000 patients at 75 Health Ministry hospitals.
"For the short and medium term, the ministry is also strengthening patient flow management through the Lean Healthcare initiative.
"This includes improvements to bed management units, dedicated waiting areas for patients awaiting discharge, and enhancements to day-care units," he said.
Dzulkefly said cluster hospitals and service networks had also been established to facilitate the sharing of specialist expertise, equipment and bed capacity among hospitals in nearby areas.
The ministry was also expanding the role of health clinics in managing stable cases and chronic diseases to strengthen primary healthcare, he added.
In the long term, the ministry was undertaking targeted improvements to infrastructure, physical capacity and human resources through phased facility upgrading, renovation and expansion projects.
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