PUTRAJAYA: Public hospitals nationwide will continue operating around the clock during the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri public holidays, confirms Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
His assurance follows Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement of an additional public holiday for the festive period, bringing the total to three days.
Dzulkefly said services at hospitals under the ministry will remain unchanged despite the extended holiday period, with medical staff continuing to work on a 24-hour basis similar to other public holidays.
“Operations at our hospitals will continue as usual for 24 hours, just like any other public holiday. We work around the clock,” he said during a press conference here yesterday.
He added that healthcare personnel who have been scheduled for on-call duties will continue providing services at ministry hospitals nationwide.
Dzulkefly also said patients, whose appointments at specialist clinics or day treatment centres fall on the public holiday, will be given new dates.
“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.
He added that the ministry will continue monitoring health-related developments that could affect public safety during the festive period. He said this would be done by the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) at both the state and national levels to ensure any public health incidents are promptly addressed.
Earlier, Dzulkefly also announced the introduction of Cik Era AI, an upgraded version of the Cik Era chatbot which was launched on Oct 15, 2024 to support smoking cessation efforts.
He said the artificial intelligence-powered assistant has been integrated into the JomQuit website as a virtual companion accessible 24 hours a day to provide encouragement, information and guidance to individuals who wish to quit smoking.
“The JomQuit initiative recorded encouraging results, with 2,476 participants successfully quitting smoking, representing a success rate of about 58.5%,” he said.
He added that the platform has recorded 9,200 interactions with Cik Era, with 9,349 registered clients and 4,858 consultations conducted 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.
