Cause for concern: A shortage of doctors, coupled with an increasing patient load, ageing population and medical inflation, would burden the system and healthcare workers. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Fewer aspiring doctors are willing to complete their training as house officers than in previous years, says Hartal Doktor Kontrak.
Dr Muhammad Yassin, who is a spokesman of the healthcare interest group, observed that there had been a rising trend of house officers dropping out.
“If they leave before completing housemanship, they cannot get full registration from Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and cannot practise as a doctor,” he said.
As a result, he cautioned that there would be fewer doctors in the long term.
He said a shortage of doctors, coupled with an increasing patient load, ageing population and medical inflation, would burden the system and healthcare workers.
This in turn would lead to patients receiving suboptimal care as well as longer waiting times for care and surgery, he added.
“Doctors can be retained by improving the remuneration, for example, by increasing on-call allowances, better working schedule and work-life balance, improving their welfare and addressing issues like bullying, provide more specialisation slots, more permanent posts, and better perks for those in contract, among others.”
Malaysian Medical Association president Datuk Dr Kalwinder Singh Khaira said housemen who fail to complete their housemanship will not only be unable to practise in the country but will also miss the opportunity to pursue any postgraduate training.
“This leaves them only with the options of finding a job in the healthcare sector which does not entail patient care or to move overseas to continue their career there. This would then lead to brain drain.
“This sort of loss will lead to an ever decreasing number of new medical officers and even fewer specialists in the future, which will hurt the country’s healthcare capabilities in the long run,” he said.
To this, Dr Kalwinder said efforts must be made to retain housemen in service by providing increased job security, training, and career progression opportunities.
“Adequate attention should be given to ensure their work-life balance and remuneration which includes salary and allowances that commensurate with their dedicated service.”
The Star reported last year that the number of housemen at the Health Ministry had declined by 50% since 2019.
About two months ago, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad told the Dewan Rakyat that only 3,316 housemen were appointed and placed at training hospitals nationwide in 2024.
He also said that his ministry was looking to appoint around 3,000 medical officers this year.
