Health Minister: All govt hospitals and medical institutions to have creches

PUTRAJAYA:  All government hospitals and medical institutions will have daycare centres, better known as creches, for the staff to leave their babies while on duty.  

The creches, however, would only for be for babies aged up to six months old, said Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad on Friday (July 6).  

"We decided on this as we want to ensure that the tragic loss of the baby of one of our colleagues will not happen again.  

"We are deeply saddened by the incident and I am very determined to provide the best possible working environment for staff.  

"Having a creche in our own hospitals and medical institutions will provide staff with peace of mind," he said at the Putrajaya Hospital's Hari Raya open house on Friday.  

Speaking to newsmen later, Dr Dzulkefly said he hoped the facility would be ready by the end of this year.  

"We need to carry out some renovations and more importantly, we need to ensure the creches fully comply with all regulations pertaining to baby daycare services.  

"It will also be a 24-hour creche because our staff at the hospitals and medical institutions work round the clock," he said.  

Dr Dzulkefly added that the creches would be modelled after a similar facility at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan.  

He said that there were 144 hospitals and medical institutions in the country and 35 had childcare centres.  

On Tuesday (July 3), five-month-old Adam Rayqal Mohd Sufi was found dead by police in a refrigerator at his babysitter's house in Kampung Nakhoda in Gombak.

His mother is a nurse at Hospital Kuala Lumpur and was working when the remains of her son were brought to the hospital for a postmortem.