PUTRAJAYA: Public hospitals nationwide will continue operating around the clock during the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad confirms.
This follows Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement of an additional public holiday in conjunction with Aidilfitri.
Dzulkefly said services at hospitals under the Health Ministry will remain unchanged during the extended holiday period.
"Operations at our hospitals will continue as usual for 24 hours, just like any other public holiday. We work around the clock," he told a press conference here on Sunday (March 15).
He added that healthcare personnel scheduled for on-call duties will continue to provide services at ministry hospitals nationwide.
"There is no change in that.
"For patients whose specialist clinic or day treatment appointments fall on the public holiday, they will be contacted and provided with a new appointment date," he said.
Additionally, the ministry will continue monitoring any health-related developments that could affect public safety during the festive period.
Dzulkefly said continuous monitoring will be carried out by the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) at state and national level to promptly address any public health incidents.
Earlier in the day, Anwar announced that if Hari Raya falls on Friday (March 20), the following Monday (March 23) would be an additional holiday; and if it falls on Saturday (March 21), the additional holiday will be on the preceding Friday (March 20).
Dzulkefly also announced the introduction of Cik Era AI, an upgraded version of the Cik Era chatbot that was launched on Oct 15, 2024, to support smoking cessation efforts.
He said the artificial intelligence-powered assistant has now been integrated with the JomQuit website as a virtual companion accessible 24 hours a day to provide encouragement, information and guidance to those who wish to quit smoking.
"The JomQuit initiative has recorded encouraging results, with 2,476 participants successfully quitting smoking – a success rate of 58.5%," he said.
He added that the platform has also recorded 9,200 interactions with Cik Era, with 9,349 registered clients and 4,858 consultations provided so far.
However, 1,434 individuals indicated they were not interested in continuing with the programme, while 3,056 could not be contacted, he said.
