KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry and Higher Education Ministry will establish a joint committee to ensure the country’s healthcare workforce supply remains aligned with current and future needs, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (pic).
The Health Minister said the move follows preliminary discussions between the ministries last week, with the committee’s first meeting scheduled for July.
"To ensure the healthcare sector ecosystem remains at an optimum level, the ministries will establish a committee to ensure the supply and availability of healthcare workers consistently meet current requirements," he said in a parliamentary written reply dated Tuesday (June 23).
Dzulkefly said the committee would help strengthen coordination across the healthcare pipeline, from the training and production of graduates to employment and workforce planning.
He added that his ministry was also examining a proposal to centralise the management of human resources in the healthcare sector.
As an initial step, he said the Public Service Department (PSD) established a workforce management task force in April to address issues, challenges and outstanding matters related to staffing management within the Health Ministry.
The task force is chaired by the Public Service director-general and includes the Treasury secretary-general, Health Ministry secretary-general and Health director-general, among others.
Dzulkefly said Malaysia’s healthcare labour market involved multiple ministries and agencies.
This includes Higher Education in training and producing graduates, his ministry as the country’s largest healthcare employer, other public sector healthcare providers such as university teaching hospitals and military hospitals, as well as the private healthcare sector.
He added that the Finance Ministry and PSD also played key roles in workforce planning and funding for healthcare personnel in the public sector.
