The Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) expects to have a shortage of medical officers in the coming weeks due to the exit of junior doctors starting from July 18.
The group Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) tweeted an internal letter signed by the hospital’s deputy director (medical) Dr Marina Abdullah Sani stating this.
“HKL’s senior management found that there will be a crisis of shortage of medical officers at HKL and the Tunku Azizah Hospital following the exodus of junior medical officers (floaters) from HKL beginning July 18,” Marina said in the letter dated Thursday, June 30.
Following this, she said a meeting will be held at the hospital’s auditorium this afternoon with all medical staff in administrative roles to discuss a solution.
Commenting on the letter, HDK said the doctor shortage crisis would only worsen.
“We told you so (a) long time ago. And it is going to get worse.
“Before this, they barely had enough doctors to cater to HKL’s patient load, and now not even that,” the group tweeted.
The Tunku Azizah Hospital mentioned in the letter refers to the Kuala Lumpur Women’s and Children’s Hospital, located adjacent to HKL.
A source close to HKL confirmed the letter is genuine and claimed the exodus of medical officers was due to the extended contract - which was offered to junior doctors without the promise of a permanent role.
Heavier workload, no pay adjustment
The source told Malaysiakini that the workload for medical officers at the hospital has since increased, without any changes to their salary. The problem is exacerbated by the promise of much higher pay in the private sector.
A possible stopgap measure to curb the immediate crisis may be to ask doctors in administrative roles to perform clinical tasks instead, such as seeing patients, the source said.
About a year ago, the HDK managed to galvanise hundreds of contract doctors nationwide to walk out of their workplaces.
The movement has been campaigning for an end to the "two-tier system" between permanent doctors and those on contract at government hospitals, whereby those on contract are ineligible for post-graduate scholarships to become specialists.
They are also not guaranteed permanent posts after their five-year contract.
This is on top of a lack of transparent criteria for deciding which graduates obtain a contract or permanent training post in the first place.
According to health news portal CodeBlue, 768 contract doctors reportedly left their jobs in the Health Ministry last year.
The number of contract medical officers who resigned from government service in 2017 was 110, followed by 168 in 2018, 475 in 2019 and 511 in 2020.
In March, the Health Ministry announced that it has created at least 11,296 permanent positions from 2022 until 2025. This will apply to medical, dental and pharmacy officers.
Malaysiakini has contacted HKL director Dr Rohana Johan for a response on this matter. - Mkini
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