PUTRAJAYA, March 15 — Patients who have appointments at specialist clinics or day treatment centres at government health facilities on the additional Aidilfitri public holiday will be given new dates by the hospitals, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
He said patients will be contacted by the hospital to inform them of the change in appointment dates so that their treatment and examinations can continue without affecting services at government health facilities.
“For patients whose appointments at specialist clinics or day treatment centres fall on the public holiday, they will be contacted and given new appointment dates,” he told reporters after joining the Kembara Programme with Cik Era here today.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today announced an additional holiday in conjunction with Aidilfitri, either next Friday or the following Monday.
He said the holiday on Monday, March 23, will be given if 1 Syawal falls on next Friday, while the additional holiday will be on Friday, March 20, if 1 Syawal is celebrated on Saturday.
Dzulkefly also said health facilities under the Ministry of Health (MOH) will continue to operate as usual during the holiday period.
“Healthcare personnel who are already scheduled to be on call will remain at hospitals to provide services to patients.
“In addition, monitoring of the public health situation will continue to be carried out by the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre at the state and national levels to ensure that any incident that could potentially impact public health can be addressed immediately,” he said.
On another matter, he said that for the January to June 2025 cohort, 2,476 clients who used the Cik Era ChatBot service quit smoking.
“That is an amazing number… a very good figure. In conjunction with Ramadan, let us quit smoking and regard it as a victory to leave cigarettes behind for good,” he said.
Cik Era ChatBot is an artificial intelligence innovation and an initiative by the MOH under the JomQuit programme to provide support, information and guidance to help people quit smoking. — Bernama
