‘54 pct of medical officers left public sector in 2022’
KUALA LUMPUR: Fifty-four per cent of 100,696 medical officers in the country left the public service sector in 2022, with the main reason cited as wanting to work in the private sector, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the ministry’s survey also found that of the total number of doctors who left, 45 per cent are currently working abroad.
“Furthermore, 28 per cent of them left due to personal reasons, being offered to work in public universities (6.0 per cent), pursuing further studies (2.7 per cent), and opening their own clinics (0.8 per cent), while the other 0.5 per cent did not state any reasons,” he said.
Dr Dzulkefly was replying during Question Time yesterday to a supplementary question from Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) who wanted to know the reasons medical officers left the public service sector.
The minister said the government has implemented various initiatives to ensure medical officers stay in the public sector, including setting the starting salary for contract officers Grade UD41 at RM5,197, a significantly higher amount compared to other public service schemes.
He said the government had also appointed 9,822 medical officers to permanent posts between 2019 and 2023, with another 6,000 appointments to be made in 2024-2025.
Dr Dzulkefly added that the government also provides incentives for specialised studies through facilities such as fullpaid study leave with Federal Training Allowance and the Skill Training Programme.
“In addition, as on-call allowance for services rendered after office hours at clinics and hospital emergency departments, we give them RM80 per hour, and they usually work for three to four hours,” he said.
He said this in reply to Datuk Dr Alias Razak (PN-Kuala Nerus) who wanted to know the government’s short-term and long-term plans to attract medical graduates to remain in the public healthcare sector following the proposal to abolish the civil servant pension scheme.
At the same time, he called on all quarters not to speculate on the government’s pension scheme, but to just wait for the findings of the review on the public service remuneration system to be announced.