Born as Yew Ming Seong on 21 April 1963 in Sepang, Selangor to a poor Chinese family of Fuzhou descent, he spent his childhood in a 'Fuzhou' kampung at Sungai Pelek. He was raised by his single mother and had lived in the San Peng flats, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur where he acquired his early education at the Methodist Boys' School. As a young school boy, he would walk to the school in Jalan Davidson with his younger brother. Forced by his family poor condition, Yew was then adopted by an Ustaz and principal at Kolej Islam Klang where he continued his upper secondary studies before continuing his pre-university education at Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah, Cheras. Later on in life, he married his adoptive father's biological daughter and that's about when he changed his name to Noor Hisham Abdullah. Yew also had obtained a medical doctorate degree in 1988 and a Master in Surgery in 1994, both from National University of Malaysia. He went on to specialise in endocrine surgery and did his training in various universities in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia.
Career
Dr. Noor Hisham started his medical doctor career as a houseman at the Kuala Lumpur University Hospital in 1988, and later specialising in the Accident and Emergency Department in 1989. After he had gotten his Master in Surgery, he became a general surgeon in Hospital Terengganu in 1994. After 3 years as a general surgeon, Dr. Noor Hisham received an endocrinology fellowship training at various institutes in Australia. After completing his fellowship training, Dr. Noor Hisham was appointed as the Head of the Breast and Endocrine Surgery Unit at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital in 1998. 4 years later in 2002, he took on the role of Head and Senior Consultant of Breast and Endocrine Surgery at Hospital Putrajaya, a position that he has held until today. In 2008, he was appointed as the Deputy Director-General of Health and later as Director-General of Health in 2013.
As Health Director-General
Controversial political tweets
In 2018, Dr. Noor Hisham was criticised for his political inclined retweets which were viewed as pro-Barisan Nasional, the then-ruling government coalition, during the Malaysian 14th general election campaign. His retweet was a message by former prime minister Najib Razak's original tweet that showed a photo announcing the ground-breaking ceremony of the Hospital Kajang women’s and children’s complex in which it contained a verse of his hopes of Barisan Nasional winning back control of Selangor. Prior to that, he had also retweeted another message from Najib that showed a picture of Najib on a visit to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital with mothers and their new babies, in which Dr Noor Hisham also said that Barisan Nasional would implement more for mothers and children if it continues to be given the mandate. G25, a group of eminent ex-civil servants of Malaysia spokesperson, Noor Farida Ariffin said that Dr Noor Hisham was abusing his position as public servants were not supposed to campaign for any political party. A founding member of G25 and former Treasury secretary-general, Mohd Sheriff Kassim said the Ministry of Health should lodge a complaint against Dr Noor Hisham to the Election Commission. The electoral reform group, Bersih 2.0 also criticised Dr Noor Hisham by saying that he was in breach of public service regulations. He was named in Bersih's 'Hall Of Shame' together with Najib. Bersih also said that they were appalled that the Ministry of Health allows its Facebook page to promote Barisan Nasional’s manifesto during GE14 campaign.
Dr. Noor Hisham is the director-general in charge during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. In April 2020, he joined an international coalition dedicated to clinical research involving COVID-19. The China Global TV Network, had recognised Dr Noor Hisham as among the “top doctors” of the world for his approach in handling the pandemic. On 4 July, Noor Hisham was awarded the "2019 Most Notable Alumni" by his alma mater Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Medical Faculty. On 17 July 2020, he received the BrandLaureate Award by the World Brand Foundation for Outstanding Brand Leadership 2020, Ministry of Health also received the award for a 'Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation' for flattening the curve.
