A TOTAL of 272,237 health workers are serving government health facilities nationwide, says Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (pic).
He added this number represented about 90% of the ministry’s manpower needs as of June 30 this year.
“Of this total, 68,286 are nurses and 33,898 medical officers comprising 8,451 specialists and 25,447 non-specialist doctors.
“As of now, the hiring rate for personnel for health facilities nationwide is 90.1%,” he said in a written reply to Datuk Adnan Abu Hassan (BN-Kuala Pilah).
He added the remaining vacancies and any additional requirements were carried out through employment contracts involving 29,971 personnel.
Dzulkefly said the ministry is aware of the issue surrounding the lack of doctors which was due to several complex factors.
The issues include manpower demand differing from manpower projections and matters beyond the ministry’s control, he added.
He said the ministry is looking at ways to swiftly address manpower shortages, particularly those affecting government hospitals.
Among them he said was the amendments to the Medical Act 1971 last year on the recognition of specialist doctors through parallel pathway programmes.
“We have also filled vacancies immediately in phases involving the appointment of 4,352 medical officers permanently.
“They began reporting for duty as early as Oct 2 to the ministry’s health facilities nationwide with the entire process to be completed by the end of this month,” he said.
He added that the ministry is also actively engaging private and public institutions of higher education to provide conditional offers to medical graduates wishing to serve in the public health sector.
