Govt to resolve issue of housemen placement — Health Minister
KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will solve the glut of medical graduates and new nurses who have yet to get placement in government hospitals.
Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the problem was due to an increase in medical graduates from local and foreign institutions.
“The second reason is that the ministry is implementing the human resource optimisation policy, which means there will be no additional new posts offered, but on a trade-off or redeployment,” he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama here recently.
Dr Dzulkefly said the ministry was aware of the issue and to overcome it, the ministry had taken the following measures:
To change the method of appointment, from permanent to contract appointment, in which the officer has the opportunity to undergo housemanship and obtain full registration as required under the Medical Act 1971 to improve the clinical skills and experience of officers, and;
To enforce a moratorium on medical programmes with the cooperation of the Education Ministry up to April 30, 2021, with the aim of imposing quota on medical graduates by universities in the country. The original period was for five years from May 1, 2011, to April 30,2016 – this has been extended to April 30, 2021.
Dr Dzulkefly said under the moratorium, there would be no new medical programmes at degree level and no increase in the quota of medical student intake.
However, the ministry would not be able to control the intake or medical graduates coming out of foreign universities.
“Apart from that, the ministry had increased the training slots for graduates from 10,835 to 11,706 through additional graduate training hospitals. The ministry had increased the number of graduate training hospitals from 38 in 2009, to 47 hospitals now,” he said.
It covers 44 hospitals under the ministry and three teaching hospitals – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Centre and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre – in 2018.
Other measures taken included increasing the number of graduates’ training posting.
“Several new postings had been introduced in stages to increase training slots and placement of graduate in anaesthesia, emergency services, psychiatric and premier health departments,” said Dr Dzulkefly.
He added that the ministry would continue recruit Grade UD41 medical officers in phases under contract every two months, depending on the vacancies of training slots
On the issue of graduate nurses yet to receive placement in government hospitals, Dr Dzulkefly said the ministry had reduced the number of nurse trainees from 2,274 in 2016 to 1,742 this year – representing a drop of 23 per cent.
He said apart from that, the ministry would also appeal for special approval from the Public Service Department (JPA) to increase the number of permanent posts or to allow the ministry appoint graduate nurses from the Health Ministry Training Institutes on contract.
“The application is still under consideration by JPA,” he said. — Bernama
The second reason is that the ministry is implementing the human resource optimisation policy, which means there will be no additional new posts offered, but on a trade-off or redeployment. — Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Health Minister