WISDOM Foundation urges the Federal Government to immediately formulate more effective measures and make clearer plans for the issue of contract doctors in Malaysia.
WISDOM Foundation, after our second webinar on the predicament confronting contract doctors, found that the Hartal Doktor Kontrak Movement is still strongly asserting for their two demands; for the government to offer permanent appointments to all existing contract appointed officers and for a transparent explanation of the criteria required for permanent appointments. In other words, they cannot accept the two years extension offered by the government.
To us the issue of contract doctors is a national problem as our country produces an enormous supply of medical graduates with little hope of having job security and it is needed to be resolved by the government on a short, medium, and long-term basis.
For instance, since 2016, only 786 medical officers have been appointed permanently while 23,000 new doctors serve in the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) on a contract basis and their service contract will expire after serving for 5 years, namely 3 years as a house officer and 2 years as a licensed medical doctor.
Meanwhile the large number of medical graduates stems from the sudden mushrooming in the number of university and colleges offering medical degrees from 10 to 32 between 2000 till 2012 and these institutions will continue to produce graduates contributing to the oversupply of medical graduates’ unemployment.
Although Malaysia has a 1:454 doctor-to-population ratio, surpassing the suggested 1:500 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are still states who do not come close to meeting this standard.
The ratio of 1: 662 for Sarawak and 1: 856 for Sabah shows that the distribution of doctors is uneven throughout the country, highlighting the fact that a lack of doctors still exists in society.
WISDOM Foundation strongly recommends the following methods to resolve this issue:
- The Federal Government should implement a stricter system of medical school accreditation to prevent further mushrooming of medical graduates.
- Malaysia should aim to produce quality doctors by enforcing tests for students who are interested in pursuing the medical line of work as well as current medical officers who are aiming for higher positions.
- Decentralization should be implemented by transferring the role of human resource management from the Public Service Department (JPA) to the MOH and state governments who better understands the demand of doctors needed on the ground.
Hence, WISDOM Foundation urges the Federal Government to implement these reforms in the accreditation system as well as in the health administration system so that the issue of injustice in the appointment of our young doctors in the future can be resolved.
Wilfred Madius Tangau
Executive Chairperson
WISDOM Foundation
