KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has urged the government to abolish the contract employment system for doctors, following the Prime Minister’s announcement that more than 4,000 new doctor positions will be filled this year.
MMA president Dr Kalwinder Singh Khaira welcomed the creation of the positions, calling it “a positive and much-needed step forward in strengthening our public health care system and addressing long-standing issues related to contract doctors.”
However, in a statement yesterday, Dr Kalwinder said the MMA hopes the new posts will be permanent, and that “the permanent positions will be given based on seniority in terms of years of service.”
He added that beyond filling existing vacancies, more permanent positions should be created so that “all remaining contract doctors in the system can be converted to be on permanent posts.”
“Once an adequate number of permanent posts are made available, the government should move on to abolish the contract employment scheme for doctors and reinstate the policy of offering permanent positions to all new doctors entering the public health care system as practiced in the past and similar to other civil service sectors,” Dr Kalwinder said.
He stressed that scrapping the contract system is crucial to restore confidence and motivate doctors to remain in the public sector. “This will ultimately strengthen the public health care system,” he said, adding that job security and clear career pathways were key to retention.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in a televised address yesterday, announced the creation of 4,352 doctor positions across public health care facilities this year, including for contract doctors.
“There have been complaints about several critical positions affecting the rakyat’s interests – a shortage of doctors, for example. So, we have decided that, while improving services, more contract doctors and new doctors are needed.
“Therefore, starting now, we are adding and filling positions at health facilities, as I mentioned earlier, including 4,352 contract doctors and new doctors this year,” Anwar said.
