Govt ready to pay for services in areas facing shortage of specialists

He said the government is prepared to pay for the services in areas where it is short of specialists.

He pointed out that doctors from public hospitals are allowed to offer their services as locum in private institutions as long as it does not interfere with their work. As for specialists, they are allowed to work as locum one day a week apart from weekends.

However, he said, there is no exchange programme between the government and the private sector that could ease the way for doctors from both sides to help each other. It was recently reported that there were only 115 oncologists in the country, which is less than half the number needed for a population of 30 million.

Ideally, the ratio of oncologists to population should be one to 100,000. Of the 115 oncologists, 68 now work in private medical institutions, 33 work in public hospitals, and the remaining 14 in university-based hospitals.

In the field of palliative medicine, there is a need for at least 218 specialists but there are only 21 of them in the country.

The World Health Organisation has recommended that the ratio of psychiatrists to population should not be less than one to 10,000. However, the current ratio for Malaysia is one to 200,000. To meet the required ratio, the country needs an additional 3,000 psychiatrists.

Lee had recently asked for 10,675 additional posts in government hospitals and clinics to be filled nationwide to meet the increased demand for healthcare.

He said this was to address the shortage of medical personnel, especially in the emergency department.