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Eight medical officers at Ranau Hospital in Sabah have worked consecutive shifts of 48 to 72 hours with no days off in the past month, a medical officer wrote to Malaysian health news outlet CodeBlue.

The author, who requested anonymity because civil servants are barred from writing to the press, said the hospital had an initial 19 medical officers, described as “just sufficient,” before permanent placements in September reduced the number to eight.

The eight doctors cover the male, female and paediatric wards, the obstetric and gynaecology ward, the outpatient department, day care and the emergency and trauma department.

They also attend emergency operating theatre, haemodialysis, and forensic cases, and escort patients by ambulance to tertiary centres.

Rest Periods Are Short

The author added that doctors work daily on-call shifts of 48 to 72 consecutive hours, followed by five to 15 hours of rest.

Emergency shifts run 24 hours, followed by ward rounds the next day.

Doctors remain on passive standby during rest periods.

One medical officer reviews all outpatient patients from 8 am to 5 pm and stays on call for the rest of the day.

The clinic, which sees more than 100 patients a day, has limited capacity and redirects some to the nearest Klinik Kesihatan or private care.

The clinic reschedules patients with transport or financial limits, and medical assistants review cases of non-communicable disease.

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Doctor Shortage Repeats Across Sabah, Staff Say They Feel Unsupported

Only one of seven permanent posts offered in September was taken up, even though the government had set a 7 October deadline.

An anonymous internal letter published by CodeBlue says a similar shortage happened in November 2025.

Concerns were raised with the Sabah State Health Department (JKNS) back then, but no support came.

The author closed by saying the doctors feel “extremely alone and unsupported,” and CodeBlue has asked the Sabah Health Department for comment.

The letter is the only source for the claims about 48-to-72-hour consecutive shifts.

Even so, independent reporting, political figures and medical associations strongly support its core claims of doctor no-shows and wider staffing failures at Ranau Hospital and across Sabah.

The New Straits Times reported that Ranau received only one of four expected doctors in the 28 September placement exercise, after the others declined their appointments.

As a result, the hospital was reportedly running at just 45 per cent of its medical officer capacity.

Other rural facilities fared worse, with Keningau, Beluran and Sipitang hospitals reportedly receiving no new medical officers at all.

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TRP has reached out to the Ministry of Health (MOH) for comment.

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