LIKE it or not, Malaysia’s Health Ministry (MOH) has found itself ‘under siege’ with the country’s shortage of doctors and nurses not going away anytime soon but only bound to worsen with neighbouring Singapore coming to town with a major recruitment drive of the country’s ‘unappreciated’ healthcare professionals.
This has compelled some industry influencers to wonder if MOH has a counter-strategy under its sleeves or will end up being a sitting duck with Singapore’s “Talent Angels” lurking to further aggravate Malaysia’s brain drain of healthcare professionals.
“Look at how aggressive Singapore is hunting our talents. This is no longer brain drain. This is brain hijack,” asserted Thromboxane A2 Inhibitor (@azmanrocks) on X.
Look at how aggressive Singapore is hunting our talents. This is no longer brain drain. This is brain hijack.
Now how aggressive are we in retaining our talents?
Talent Angels are talent agents authorized by Singapore MOH Holdings, recruiters for Singapore government hospitals. https://t.co/WzxZvHWvJY pic.twitter.com/TmZ8KG1STJ
— Thromboxane A2 Inhibitor (@azmanrocks) July 8, 2025
“Now how aggressive are we in retaining our talents? Talent Angels (recruitment firm) are talent agents authorised by Singapore’s MOH Holdings Pte Ltd; they’re recruiters for Singapore government hospitals.”
The poster’s concern has stemmed from a viral social media post by Hospital Kuala Lumpur medical officer Dr Amanda Elli who is deemed a KOL (key opinion leader) in the Malaysian healthcare industry.
The medical aesthetician who is dubbed “Dr Unicorn” has shared posters of the alluring job openings as medical officer with a starting salary of S$110,000/annum (RM365,367/annum) excluding fringe benefits, monthly accommodation allowance and insurance.
“Such a great opportunity to kumpul (collect) for at least two years before returning to Malaysia if homesick,” she shared. “Application link on my IG profile’s stories highlight (the said post has presumably been deleted while her Instagram page is inaccessible at the time of writing).
Based on the exchanges that the post by @azmanrocks generated, it can be assumed Singapore’s dire need for foreign healthcare talent can be attributed to two likelihoods:
- Singapore is building more hospitals to cater to its aging population following which Malaysians are easiest to recruit because of cultural and language similarities; and
- Many existing Singaporean and Filipino healthcare professionals have migrated to work in Australia (which working hours is only 38 hours/week) post the COVID-19 period.
In another post, fellow healthcare influencer HartalDoktorKontrak (@HKontrak) sarcastically wished Malaysia’s MOH and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad “Good Luck”.
Good luck @KKMPutrajaya @DrDzul https://t.co/ApfLb9YiAz
— HartalDoktorKontrak (@HKontrak) July 8, 2025
Surely the salary disparity coupled with workload/working condition between what Malaysian nurses can expect to earn in Singapore is akin to comparing heaven and earth after taking into account the favourable Singapore dollar exchange rate.
At the end of the day, it is an open market out there although one commenter appealed to “those who studied under JPA/MARA/Zakat or whatever scholarship to serve their bond which are derived from taxpayers’ money prior to leaving MOH or even to migrate abroad to seek greener pasture”.
Another concluded that those wanting to migrate should he encouraged to do so to teach MOH a lesson “about our underpaid doctors etc when living cost is rising every month but salary plateau for years”. – July 10, 2025
