Over 2,000 medical staff quit public sector between 2022 and 2024
Its Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said most of them cited a desire to join the private sector or statutory bodies, personal reasons, and health issues as the main factors behind their resignation.
He said the resignations involved 272 medical officers in 2022, 229 in 2023, and 204 in 2024.
As for nurses, 304 resigned in 2022, followed by 521 in 2023 and 569 in 2024.
Despite these resignations, the ministry said it remains committed to strengthening the country's healthcare system by enhancing the skills, preparedness, and mobility of its workforce.
"The ministry has no authority to prevent medical officers or nurses from seeking employment in the private sector or abroad.
"However, to address this, the ministry has appointed 12,761 medical officers and 5,396 nurses to fill permanent vacancies from 2022 to 2024," he said in a written parliamentary reply yesterday.
He was responding to a question from Tan Kar Hing (PH Gopeng) regarding the number and trend of experienced workforce loss, specifically those with over five years of service, among doctors and nurses in the public sector, as well as the reasons behind it and measures to address the issue.
To retain existing talent and curb the migration of healthcare workers, Dzulkefly said several initiatives have been implemented.
These include exempting interim nurse appointments from central agency approval for 2023 and 2024, with similar appointments in 2025 potentially made on a permanent basis.
"The ministry has also reduced weekly working hours from 45 to 42 for medical officers in emergency departments and nurses in hospital wards.
"In addition, the ministry offers various allowances and incentives, such as locum allowances, specialist incentive payments, post-basic qualification allowances, and hardship allowances based on location and level of difficulty," he said.
He added that a pre-gazettement incentive payment is also being introduced for medical officers undergoing their supervised work experience (SWE), in recognition of their workload and commitment during the period.
"Promotion opportunities have also been improved, with time-based promotions from Grade UD9 to UD14 within nine to 12 years for medical officers.
"Paramedics, meanwhile, are eligible for performance-based promotions under the Time-Based Promotion Based on Excellence (TBK 1 and TBK 2) scheme after 13 years of service."
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