Don’t wait for ‘double blow’ to hit health system, MMA tells govt

 

The government says it will discuss the issue of contract doctors at its weekly Cabinet meeting.

PETALING JAYA: The lack of specialists and an exodus of talent will continue to be a problem unless contract doctors are offered permanent positions, says the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA).

Citing data from the National Specialist Register and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), MMA’s Section for House Officers, Medical Officers and Specialists (Schomos) said Malaysia’s population-to-specialist ratio of 10000:3.88 was “embarrassingly low” when compared to OECD countries’ ratio of 10000:14.33.

Apart from unequal pay and the lack of job security, it said, the scarce opportunities offered to pursue specialisation have been one of contract doctors’ biggest complaints.

“Wait a few more years and we will suffer from the double blows of even higher costs and a greater brain drain,” Schomos warned in a statement today.

“Even as we are fighting the pandemic, scores of doctors are forced to leave the country to seek better job prospects.

“The ailing healthcare system needs to be resuscitated urgently before it can heal our rakyat properly. Resolving the current issues with contract hire of our doctors is the first step.”

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday said the Cabinet will discuss permanent positions for contract doctors when ministers meet today for their weekly session, adding that this would involve a cost of more than RM2 billion.

While Schomos said the figure may seem “astronomical” at a glance, the required budget had been compounding for the past few years and would continue to do so if this issue was not resolved immediately.

The contract system limits medical officers to five years’ service in the public sector, after which they will have to move into the private sector or take up specialist training on their own.

The scheme was introduced in 2016 to deal with an oversupply of medical graduates, with news reports putting the blame on the opening of many medical schools and lack of stringent entry requirements. - FMT