Don’t ignore the plight of contract medical officers

 

From Moaz Nair

The country is facing a precarious situation due to Covid-19 and there seems to be no end to this pandemic. Contract medical officers and other healthcare professionals have been unendingly risking their own lives to battle this pandemic.

There is a worrying shortage of medical staff, especially doctors, in many hospitals and this has caused many medical personnel to suffer from stress, fatigue and downheartedness because of the heavy workload.

A case in point is when medical staff are placed in quarantine after contracting Covid-19: the rest of the staff would have to work extended hours to replace them.

The staff are not only being required to work in different roles, they also take on far more tasks than they are able to physically or mentally handle.

Apparently, medical officers have no choice but to bear with their tasks. Despite the constraints they face, the well-being of every patient is still being taken care of.

Our public healthcare frontliners are fatigued. The immediate solution for now is to employ more medical staff, especially doctors. In a busy hospital set up, make them work on shift hours of less than 8 hours a day giving them two days off in a week to safeguard their mental health.

Boost their morale

There are currently 23,000 medical officers including housemen in training. They seek policy changes to ensure a better and secure future. The majority of the medical officers have been placed under contract since 2016.

To boost the morale of these doctors, it’s as simple as placing them on a permanent job scheme and provided with fairer compensation and benefits based on their job scope.

These contract doctors, just like other permanent medical officers, are an essential part of the healthcare system tasked to fight the pandemic and attend to patients. Yet, their future continues to be blurred due to their uncertain status, lower salary scheme and lack of facilities and opportunities for specialisation.

To enter into a specialisation programme or to be eligible for the Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan (HLP), they need to be permanent staff and not on contract. As non-permanent medical officers, they have to further their specialist study through self-financing or outside sponsorship. There is no guarantee that after completing their studies they will be absorbed as specialists in government hospitals.

In fact, contract doctors are deprived of many other benefits given to permanent doctors such as to be in the pension scheme, the eligibility for housing loans under the Public Sector Home Financing Board (LPPSA) scheme and the entitlement to time-based promotions.

Permanent or contract, both face the same amount of work attending to the increasing number of patients in hospitals. Contract doctors thus should not be treated as second class. The government should value their sacrifice.

The prime minister had said that the contract doctors’ appeal would be discussed carefully with the Cabinet as it would involve a high cost of more than RM2 billion.

This, supposedly, is not the immediate cost incurred to the government in making these contract doctors permanent. The RM2 billion here could be the extended costs spread out over many years to come. In this case, financial constraints may not be a major issue.

Be patient and calm

These contract doctors and other frontliners are relentlessly struggling to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, as this involves the lives of the people. They are exposed to the virus almost every day in their line of duty. Their role and sacrifice should not be sidelined.

As for now, these contract doctors should not give up, as this will affect the country’s healthcare system. There’s no need for them to go on strike. Just hope for the government to resolve the issue of their permanent placement or to come up with a better deal for them.

These doctors need job security and the opportunities to progress into specialisation. Perhaps one option would be that contract doctors be given permanent posts under the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) system, as opposed to the pension scheme. And that they be given the opportunities to complete their masters or take a parallel pathway into specialisation.

Usually the brightest among students are chosen to study medicine and the country cannot afford to lose such talent.

A long period of uncertainty is nearing an end, hopefully. The health minister was reported to have said the issue of contract medical officers who had not been absorbed into permanent posts would be discussed in a Cabinet meeting. It seems the paperwork has been completed. So those doctors in the contract scheme just have to keep their fingers crossed, be patient and calm. - FMT

Moaz Nair is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.