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We Urge the Government To Sort Out The Cumbersome Process of Applications And Allocations Of Posts For Doctors In Malaysia Statement by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong on the further utterance of shortage of doctors in the country by the Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng on 28 May 2000. 1.6.2000 | |||||||
| On 28 May 2000, the Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng repeated that Malaysia was short of 712 doctors in public service. The shortage in the rural areas was 1,700 doctors. Only 54 per cent of posts in 4,300 rural clinics were filled Out of about 10,000 doctors in the country, 55% are private doctors. More have resigned from government hospitals. Datuk Chua has pleaded to private doctors to volunteer serving in rural clinics. We hope they can help. While the Health Ministry is recruiting foreign doctors especially those from Indonesia, we wish it would look into the multiple factors causing the shortage. It is not just money. One factor is the cumbersome bureaucracy, processing applications and allocations of doctors to different posts in government hospitals and clinics. Hundreds of doctors are qualified from local and foreign universities annually and many foreign-trained Malaysian specialists are willing to return home. How do Health Ministry, hospitals and the Public Service Department, PSD, deal with them? The bureaucracy continues to disappoint. There are complaints from locally-qualified | |
doctors that they have to wait more than two months to be posted. The foreign-trained doctors are in a worse position. Malaysian specialists wishing to return from overseas face even more difficulties. We suggest that the Helath Ministry and the PSD really do something about it. Is it the administrative culture? The xenophobia? The racism? The sense of hopelessness? Or the relative lack of coordination? Although the Government has expressed its welcome to doctors and specialists trained overseas, the number of them who actually come home is not made known. Many suspect that it is small. Let the PSD enquire into the long-running saga of Malaysian specialists who wish to come home. It is not just the difference in remunerations between our country and developed countries. Among others, the main factors include the cumbersome bureaucracy and the administrative culture. We have discussed the problem of the shortage of doctors for years. We shall continue to do so. The current Government policy such as producing more doctors without adequate supervision on their quality will obfuscate the issue.
Dr Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
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