PUTRAJAYA: The Bandar Botanik health clinic in Klang, Selangor, is now operating seven days a week, including on public holidays.
This is part of a pilot project to deal with overcrowding at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) emergency and trauma department.
Health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the implementation of the HTAR and Bandar Botanik health clinic cluster pilot project started on Saturday.
This was agreed upon by the Special Task Force on Agency Reform.
Through this pilot project, the clinic’s operating hours have been extended from 8am to 9.30pm, with the last patient registration at 9pm.
“Therefore, I hope patients with mild symptoms or non-emergency cases will no longer visit HTAR’s emergency and trauma department but will instead go to the Bandar Botanik health clinic at the appointed time.
“This is because the emergency and trauma department should only treat serious and critical emergency cases,” she said at the health ministry’s monthly assembly here today.
In her 2023 New Year’s message, Zaliha had announced the extended operation hours for selected health clinics in the country.
This was to reduce overcrowding and long waiting times at hospitals’ emergency and trauma departments.
Health clinics normally operate from 8am to 5pm on working days.
Zaliha said the change in patient arrival patterns from HTAR’s emergency and trauma department to the Bandar Botanik health clinic would be monitored closely during the implementation of the pilot project.