PETALING JAYA: Hundreds of contract doctors are walking away from the very permanent posts they once fought for, turning Malaysia’s doctor shortage into what a health policy expert calls an existential crisis.
Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib said the issue is no longer the number of permanent posts on offer, but whether doctors would take them up.
“Hundreds of contract doctors are now walking away from offers of permanent positions.
“The horse has fled the stable a long time ago. The problem is existential now for the whole healthcare system,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib told Parliament last week that only about half the 560 permanent postings offered to Sabah this year were expected to be taken up. The pipeline is also weakening, with only about 10% of 5,000 housemanship training slots filled, Azrul said.
He described the Public Service Department’s (JPA) move to hand the Health Ministry control over its posts as meaningful reform, though one that still falls short.
“This is not full autonomy as JPA and the Treasury still control the total number of posts and funding,” he said as he called for a Health Services Commission with powers over appointments, placements, transfers and discipline, similar to the Education Service Commission for teachers.
Maldistribution, he added, was also a retention problem involving workload, housing and career progression, with relocation allowances “only one long and delayed part of the solution”.
Hartal Doktor Kontrak spokesman Dr Muhammad Yassin estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 doctors were still serving on contract, saying only the Health Ministry had the exact figure.
“A holistic and thorough oversight of the number of contract doctors should be done, and the 4,500 placements adjusted accordingly,” he said.
Doctors whose contracts lapsed before absorption were forced out of the ministry, he said, calling it “such a great loss to the country and the rakyat”.
He gave the relocation allowance a guarded welcome, saying the group would wait for the official circular as “the devil is in the details”.
On Monday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad announced that JPA had given the ministry direct control over its approved posts, with 4,500 contract medical officers going permanent this year – part of over 18,500 absorbed since 2023, which he called the largest such exercise in the country’s history.
The contract system, introduced in Dec 2016 to cope with a glut of medical graduates, sparked the Hartal Doktor Kontrak walkout in July 2021 over job insecurity.
