THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has urged the Health Ministry (MOH) to reveal its selection criteria for permanent positions involving contract doctors, dental officers and pharmacists, after the ministry approved more than 4,000 such applications for this year.
On Tuesday (Aug 16), Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said 4,053 out of 8,672 initial applications were approved, covering 3,215 doctors, 438 dentists and 400 pharmacists.
This was the highest number of additional permanent posts since the contract policy began in 2016, according to Khairy, who added that MOH aims to offer at least 1,500 permanent positions every year to contract officers.
Khairy also said that the MOH would hold talks with the Public Services Commission (SPA) to determine whether unsuccessful applicants could re-apply for a permanent position.
MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai noted that not all applicants were accepted and more than 8,000 doctors had applied for permanent contract positions.
“Though we know that any offer of a permanent position will ultimately be based on the report transpiring from the interview itself (notwithstanding any additional educational or professional qualifications that the candidate may have), it will be good to have a set of selection criteria made known to the contract doctors,” he said in a statement today.
Based on the selection process, the MMA noted that those rejected included applicants who went for parallel pathway medical programmmes as well as those who excelled in their work, many of whom would be dejected by not being selected.
“They have been informed that they will be offered a chance to reapply next year,” Koh noted.
“Outcry from contract doctors”
“But with even fewer permanent positions available next year, there is an outcry from the contract doctors wanting to know the selection criteria being employed to filter out those who will be offered permanent positions.”
Without knowing the selection criteria, Koh added, many feel that they will be shortchanged when they apply for permanent positions.
“Therefore, MMA calls for the selection criteria to be made public.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today the Government would consider increasing MOH’s allocation in Budget 2023, expected to be tabled in October.
Khairy had recently asked for public health expenditure to be increased to 5% of the Government’s gross domestic product (GDP), in line with the public health expenditure benchmark for upper middle-income countries (between 4% and 5% of GDP).
At present, public health expenditure is set at 2.59%, thus leading many to endure long waits before being able to enjoy services such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans in Government hospitals.
“The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) will look into this,” Ismail said at the opening of the Bera hospital in Pahang today, Bernama reported.
“InsyaAllah, there will be at least a slight increase in the Budget this year compared to previous years,” the Bera MP said. – Aug 20, 2022
Main photo credit: Bernama/DPA
