No More Light Duties For Sick Staff Of Health Ministry

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The health ministry says some employees continue to have health problems after exhausting all their medical leave and cannot perform their duties. (Rawpixel pic)PETALING JAYA: The health ministry has stopped the practice of assigning “light duties” to staff with prolonged medical problems. Instead the job scopes will be modified to suit the staff member’s abilities.
However, those who are assessed as unable to fit into any role because of an illness which cannot be resolved will be recommended to be pensioned off prematurely.
The ministry said in a recent circular that there are cases of employees having health issues even after they have exhausted all their medical leave and were unable to carry out their duties.
“There is no provision for doctors under any regulation or guideline to recommend government employees for light duties. It will now be replaced with a job scope modification after carrying out an integrated intervention programme on the employee concerned,” the ministry said.
It said this programme involves government employees who are facing physical, psychological and mental illnesses and who could not get their problem resolved even after exhausting all their entitlement of leave for medical reasons.
Under current regulations, government employees are allowed to take a maximum of 15 days’ sick leave as outpatients, with an additional 180 days as inpatients. They are then referred to the medical board for a final decision.
Those who have exhausted these options will now have to be assessed under the integrated intervention programme before a final recommendation is made on their future, the circular said.
The ministry said this programme involves four phases which include identifying the staff involved followed by a psychological screening to ascertain the type of intervention plan.
“The third will be consulting the relevant experts and monitoring the affected employee before the department issues a final report on their usability in service and final action by the human resources department,” the circular said. - FMT

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