MAY 7 — My colleague became a joyful father recently. He and his wife were endowed with a lovely baby boy on 30/3/2021. He was discharged after a short stay in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Right after the child’s discharge, the hospital provided the parents with the JPN’s registration form.
My colleague dutifully filled the details and was told by JPN that there are no walk-in registrations and he must make an appointment via MyJanjiTemu to get the child’s birth certificate, which he submitted online on 6/4/2021.
To the surprise of the parents, there were no available slots right up to June 2021. They had no other choice but to book a slot on 22/6/2021. During the online registration, it was also found that there were less than 15 slots available in a day, with around half hour allocation for each slot.
The 2019 statistics shows the average birth rate of our country is 1337 babies per day. If there are 1337 births a day, would 15 slots be adequate, meaning we can only issue 15 birth certificates a day?
How long will the balance 1322 babies have to wait?
The government had announced back in May 2021 that the workforce in government offices is to resume in full and service counters to be opened in full as well. That means there should be a fully functional staff managing the issuance of the birth certificates. How come these staff are unable to accommodate the current demand and only settling for 15 birth certificates a day?
Not wanting to rely on the online application, my colleague and his wife after many failed attempts to contact JPN, managed to speak to an officer, who verified that no walk in is allowed and they have to wait until June 2021, as per the appointment, he made online.
Now comes the challenge, since the slot to register the child’s birth is only in June 2021, the poor parents are unable to register the child for his medical insurance claims, which requires details of the child’s MyKid and Birth Certificate. Therefore, my colleague must resort to paying for his medical bills on his own, despite having insurance that could cover the delivery and hospital charges.
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While I understand that we are all operating under the current pandemic and this is certainly a challenging period. With the advent of online applications, online issuance of driving license, passport, and several other vital documents, what does it take our JPN to work against these Covid-19 challenge and reduce the burden of parents who are suffering with the tightened mobility, limited access, and health impediments?
I certainly feel that issuing 15 or 31 (as I was told as of 6/5/2021) is not in par with all the advancement that we Malaysia has made in the last 30 years. Our progress cannot allow the government machinery to issue 15 or 30 birth certificates a day, when our birthrate is 44 times higher than the issuance of these certificates.
Many Malaysians are affected without even a job, and for those who are on the job, if the birth certificate is delayed, the parents must fork out the money to settle hospital bills and all other costs associated with the delivery, even though they have medical insurance benefits through their employers.
I sincerely hope the JPN will institute adequate staff and measures to ensure no birth certificate is delayed more than a week. The hospitals too should help in issuing the birth certificates. If the birth certificates cannot be issued on time, then a temporary certificate must be issued to the parents to expedite their insurance claims.
Let us make the process simple and easy so that we can become an efficient nation. We should not even be talking about these kinds of delay and discomfort caused by the poor civil service. Let us hope we will improve and make it better for all.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not represent the views of Malay Mail.
