Honour promise to phase out contract system, HDK tells govt
PETALING JAYA: Putrajaya must honour its word to phase out the contract system, which has become the source of the manpower crisis in public healthcare.
Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) spokesperson Dr Muhammad Yassin said the government must honour its promise to phase out the contract system immediately and decisively, adding that any delays or half-measures betray frontline workers.
He said the proposed steps are still insufficient to resolve the current healthcare crisis because the workforce crisis is severe.
“Planning failures and the contract system have driven doctors to the private sector and overseas,” he said.
He raised concerns that house officers remain overworked and are being treated as service manpower rather than protected trainees. He also questioned the lack of a clear timeline to end the contract system and highlighted the failure to meet the doctor-to-population ratio target.
HDK is demanding a clear timeline for the abolition of the contract system and the number of job vacancies available each year; transparency in career pathways for all contract doctors, including specialist training; better pay, allowances, working conditions and real protection against bullying and burnout as well as independent audits of workload and patient safety, with public reporting of doctor numbers, vacancies and attrition.
A medical officer from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) in Klang recently claimed the medical department was facing a severe manpower crunch. Although 50 medical officers were allocated, only 40 were available.
One medical officer would be assigned to three cubicles, where they would have to manage between 30 and 35 patients concurrently.
Klang MP V. Ganabatirau said the hospital, one of Selangor’s main facilities, has had a long-standing critical manpower shortage.
“There is a severe shortage of staff, namely nurses, doctors, and specialists, along with an acute lack of available beds. The way beds are now being arranged in the wards themselves is a clear sign that the hospital is operating under extreme pressure and in a critical condition,” he said.
“The staffing crisis is especially alarming. As the biggest and most crowded hospital in Selangor, it is deeply saddening to see that the severe shortage of manpower has not been adequately addressed or resolved by the Health Ministry,” he added.
He said many healthcare workers are genuinely overwhelmed, burdened by excessive workloads and additional responsibilities, which is driving them to leave the hospital.
“I make a humble yet urgent appeal to the Health Ministry to tackle these issues as soon as possible. Repeatedly saying that Hospital Kapar will be ready soon can no longer be an excuse. We are dealing with human lives daily, and delays come at a cost,” he said.
Independent health advocate Dr Sean Thum said the contract system, which was introduced in 2016 was the biggest human resource policy mistake.
“To be fair, the situation was compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. But it was the tipping point that accelerated the exodus of healthcare workers from Malaysia. A costly mistake that affected the Malaysian public healthcare system, and the ones paying for it are the general public and the healthcare workers. It is a mistake that took 10 years to fix,” he said.
He hoped that the ministry would hold stakeholders’ engagements before making any new policy, as it involves many people, especially medical students and junior doctors.
