Budget 2021: Offer more permanent positions to contract doctors, group urges

PETALING JAYA: The authorities should offer permanent positions to as many contract doctors as possible to ensure a robust healthcare system.

Malaysian Medics International (MMI) said the Covid-19 pandemic should serve as an impetus for the authorities to offer permanent positions for contract doctors to secure a better healthcare system for the future.

The contract scheme was implemented four years ago to address a glut of medical graduates.

MMI said offering permanent positions to contract doctors would ensure equitable healthcare services nationwide, meet the demands of an ageing nation and secure a better specialist-to-population ratio.

"At present, there are only 3.9 specialists per 10,000 population," it said.

MMI said the contract schemes were an obstacle to the specialisation process as doctors needed at least three years of services with good SKT (Sasaran Kerja Tahunan, an annual evaluation tool for healthcare workers) performance as well as sufficient experience working in a specified field to be considered for a local master’s programme.

Contract doctors are also ineligible for Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan (HLP), a study grant only awarded by the government to medical officers holding permanent positions.

"Despite having parallel pathway programmes as alternative means for doctors to attempt specialisation, there is insufficient time for contract medical officers to complete their specialist training prior to the conclusion of the (total five-year) contract," it said in a statement on Thursday (Nov 5) in the run up to Budget 2021.

It said as of July 2020, only 3.3% of contract medical officers (665 out of 19,909) had been offered permanent positions.

"There has not been clear selection criteria regarding the appointment of contract medical officers for permanent positions," it said.

MMI called upon the government to consider increasing the number of permanent positions for more medical officer in Budget 2021.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that healthcare workers are the biggest assets of our healthcare system.

"A large number of our contract doctors are contributing to the frontlines of the nation, providing healthcare services to the rakyat when and where it is needed most," said MMI.