WITH more hospital projects in the pipeline, the Health Ministry will need more than 43,000 nurses to serve the public sector.
“Based on our projection for this year, we need 43,243 nurses who can help with the healthcare delivery system,” said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni (pic).
“However, this will depend on the decision of federal agencies,” he told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
He said the ministry has started seeing results in efforts to churn out more nurses, despite the disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“However, that is not enough as we are facing new challenges in the form of new hospitals being established such as Petra Jaya in Sarawak and the Sabah Heart Centre and other new projects such as HSA2 (Hospital Sultanah Aminah 2),” he said.
Lukanisman acknowledged that issues related to nurses’ welfare must be looked into. The government, he added, is also looking at how perks and allowances for healthcare workers can be improved.
Lukanisman said as of Dec 31, 2024, there were 70,229 nurses under the Health Ministry. Of this, 69,114 were in permanent service while 821 were under contract.
He said 88% of the 79,814 vacancies for nurses have been filled.
“Based on the ministry’s records, a total of 582 nurses had resigned in 2024. Among the reasons for the resignations were joining the private sector, placement issues, following their spouse, shift hours, health problems and personal problems.”
The ministry, he added, is always committed to come up with initiatives to increase the number of nurses to ensure continuity of the healthcare services.
He said the intake for nursing diploma graduates is conducted in phases, adding that the number of trainee nurses has increased from 1,000 to 2,000.
With the Higher Education Ministry ending the moratorium on nursing diploma programmes on Aug 1, 2024, seven colleges have applied to offer new nursing diploma programmes.
The ministry has also applied for more vacancies besides revising the prerequisite for school leavers to pursue a nursing diploma course.
Applicants for a nursing diploma programme would require three credits in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia for Bahasa Melayu, Mathematics or Additional Mathematics; a credit in any Science subjects and English as well as a credit in another subject.
He was responding to a question by Suhaizan Kaiat (PH-Pulai on the number of nurses who have resigned from the Ministry and their reasons.
Suhaizan had also asked for the number of nurses required to serve in old and new health facilities.
