A hospital queue mix-up left an injured patient waiting four hours, prompting debate over public healthcare efficiency and staff workload.

A Malaysian man recently called out a government hospital in Selangor for allegedly skipping his friend’s queue number, despite the injuries sustained in an accident.

Posted on Threads, the incident reportedly took place on Tuesday (March 17) at around 8.10pm.

According to the post, the man claimed that he and his injured friend had to wait for four hours, during which time the wound continued to bleed, until it dried up.

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He said their queue number was 2093, but the hospital system had already called number 2115. When they inquired why their number had been skipped, they were allegedly told to continue waiting for the doctor’s call.

Despite his friend being categorised under the green zone (non-critical injuries), the man claimed their number continued to be overlooked. After the prolonged wait, they approached the counter and were informed that their number was not in the system, before being issued a new one.

“When we asked at the counter, they said our number wasn’t in the system and gave us a new number. So of course we expected to wait longer because of that,” he said.

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At around 11pm, the pair were finally attended to, but the situation reportedly became more confusing. The man claimed the doctor instructed his friend to see a nurse, despite their matters with the nurse already being settled, leaving only an X-ray pending before another consultation with the doctor.

He further alleged that the doctor later blamed them for not seeking proper clarification.

“When we asked the doctor again, he said the nurse was supposed to bring us to the X-ray. My friend and I were confused. We were told to wait for our number, but in the end we had to go by ourselves without waiting. Earlier, we were told to wait.

“They kept sending us back and forth. If they had told us from the start that we needed to go ourselves, we would have been fine,” he explained.

Eventually, the man and his friend decided to leave and seek treatment at a private clinic.

The post has since drawn mixed reactions online. While some netizens empathised with the challenges faced by healthcare workers in public hospitals, others expressed understanding towards the man’s frustration.

“As a Health Ministry staff member, this time I side with this story. Sometimes human error happens—perhaps the file was overlooked. As mentioned, they were comparing within the same green zone. Sometimes we need to admit mistakes and improve too,” one user commented.

“As a healthcare worker myself, I admit that this kind of mistake does happen. Sometimes the number is registered but not properly queued in the doctor’s room or X-ray unit,” another said.

However, others pointed out the realities of public healthcare.

“You paid RM1, so naturally priority is given to emergency cases. I was in an accident two weeks ago at another government hospital—I arrived at 5pm by ambulance and was only attended to after 10pm,” a third user shared.

 The Sun Malaysia