You caused doctor glut, so don’t abandon them now, Putrajaya told

 

Contract doctors now account for 45% of the total number of doctors in public hospitals.

PETALING JAYA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia chief Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj has told the government to take the blame for what he calls the “messy situation” that has resulted from its decision 20 years ago to start licensing “one medical school too many”.

He said regulatory agencies approved the colleges without looking into actual needs and the infrastructure available.

As a result, he said, the number of graduates spiralled out of control and contract doctors now accounted for 45% of the total number of doctors in public hospitals.

There are about 71,000 doctors in Malaysia. About 51,000 of them are in government service and 23,000 of these are contract doctors. There are 31 medical schools, 11 of them government colleges.

Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj.

“Together with foreign graduates returning annually, we have about 5,000 to 6,000 seeking places for housemanship,” Jeyakumar said.

He told FMT approvals for medical colleges were given without looking into the number of training hospitals or whether the government could absorb all graduates into service permanently.

Many of the private institutions, he said, had former senior government servants helming them, and he alleged that they used their personal links to get the quotas they wanted since more students meant higher profits.

“The fees range from RM300,000 to RM700,000 for a five-year course.”

Jeyakumar said the government, in licensing medical schools and making places available to nearly everyone wanting to study medicine, gave students and parents the confidence that doctors were in need.

“And now, the first batch of contract doctors, about 2,500, are reaching their five-year term. After that, more contract doctors will be joining yearly.

“This really is a big mess created by the government itself,” he said, adding that it would be wrong to abandon them now.

He suggested, as an immediate measure to break the current impasse, that their contracts be extended by another five years and that they be allowed to sign up for specialist courses with private medical schools.

“At the same time, the government should cut the intake of new medical students in public universities by 10%. As for private colleges, it should be reduced by 70%. After all, the private colleges have already made their money.”

Jeyakumar proposed the long-term measure of building an additional general hospital in every major town since this would create vacancies for doctors and also para-medical personnel, who are facing problems obtaining jobs they were trained for.

“We need more doctors at outpatient clinics as the waiting periods are long, with doctors seeing too many patients,” he said.

“How can they do justice to so many patients? So we need more doctors and more posts must be created.” - FMT