KOTA SAMARAHAN: The federal government’s decision to reduce its healthcare budget is unfair to Sarawak, which has long faced shortages in workforce and resources, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He highlighted a stark staffing imbalance, noting that Sarawak General Hospital operates with only 4,500 staff for its 1,000 beds, while an equivalent hospital in Peninsular Malaysia is allocated 5,500 staff for the same capacity.
He argued that if budget cuts are necessary, West Malaysia should be targeted first, not Sarawak.
“Sarawak General Hospital has long been operating at full bed capacity, with the emergency department frequently seeing patients waiting in corridors due to a shortage of beds, while healthcare workers continue to work under excessive workloads,” he said when met by reporters after 4th International Nursing Student Conference 2026 at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), here today (May 16).
According to him, the staffing gap suggests one of two things: either Sarawak’s healthcare workers are severely overworked, or Malaya has a surplus of staff that could be redeployed to Sarawak.
He also reminded the federal government of its own Health White Paper, which had set a target of allocating five percent of GDP to healthcare, urging it to honour that commitment with a clear roadmap rather than making cuts.
Dr Sim said that the healthcare sector should never be the primary target of fiscal reductions, as it is a matter of life and death for the public.
“This is not a trivial issue — it is a matter of life and death, yet it is not given the attention it deserves,” he added.
He also called on the federal government not to reduce allocations for Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s medical programme, explaining that doing so would only worsen the burden on an already stretched healthcare system.
“Sarawak should be the absolute last state considered for any healthcare budget reduction,” he said.
