KUALA LUMPUR – In an effort to increase the number of specialists next year, the Health Ministry has allocated RM200 million in scholarships to be awarded to medical officers, nurses and paramedics to undergo long and medium-term training whilst in service.
Its minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the ministry will continue to bridge the ratio of health workers to the population.
“The medical officers who pass the specialist training will be placed in new facilities and those that have been upgraded.
“We hope that this will reduce the existing patient congestion as has often been mentioned lately,” she said during her winding up speech of Budget 2024 in Dewan Rakyat today.
Responding to a statement by Datuk Dr Alias Razak (Kuala Nerus-PN) who noted that many contract doctors are not offered permanent positions, Zaliha said from 2019 until September 2023, a total of 8,596 contract medical officers have been offered permanent appointments.
She said in 2022, 3,215 contract officers were offered permanent appointment, and 4,263 were offered the same in July 2023.
“The second batch of offerings for this year will be handled by the Public Service Commission involving 1,226 contract officers who are reserve candidates and will report for placement on December 18,” she said.
“So the next permanent appointments will be implemented based on vacancies from time to time,” she said.
She also answered a query by Tanjong Karang MP, Datuk Dr Zulkafperi Hanapi who claimed there are no specialists in the hospital in his constituency.
“Until August this year, the ministry has placed a total of 16 resident specialists in the fields of internal medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, radiology, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, anesthesiology and critical care pathology and paediatrics (in Tanjong Karang),” she said. – November 2, 2023