Hospital interns make up highest number of civil servants sacked

KLANG: Hospital interns who have been absent from work for a long time have been served with termination notices, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa said.

He said they make up the highest number of civil servants who have been sacked from the civil service.

“There are hospital interns, also known as housemen, who go missing for up to 400 days at a time. They were let go because of this,” Dr Ali said yesterday.

He said the Public Service Department (PSD) and the Health Ministry should resolve the issue as this had an effect on the professional reputation of medical practitioners and the image of the country.

He was commenting on a report from the ministry's disciplinary committee that new officers undergoing housemanship had failed to turn up for work for a long period of time, even hundreds of days, as they were believed to be unable to take the stress at the workplace.

“Perhaps, they cannot perform their duties in a reallife situation due to work stress whereas other medical practitioners have been doing so since (the days of ) Independence,” Dr Ali said after a visit to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR).

He said medical officers who often 'disappeared' from work should remember the sacrifices of their parents who had to spend hundreds of thousands of ringgit to pay for their studies.

Earlier in his speech to HTAR staff, Dr Ali said the number of sackings involving civil servants in the medical sector was among the highest in the country.

On claims that Malaysia had the highest number of civil servants compared to other countries, Dr Ali said this comparison was incorrect because the definition of civil service was different in each country.