KUALA LUMPUR – Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar confessed that the national healthcare system is lack of medical specialists, causing some patients need to wait to get follow up treatment.
The Health Minister hopes that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) can give its commitment so that the Ministry of Health (MOH) can sponsor contract doctors to further their studies in order to fulfil the need.
Earlier, Khairy said that there are currently 13,000 medical specialists in the public and private health sectors.
However, by 2030, the need for medical specialists would increase to 28,000 to treat senior citizens and noncommunicable diseases.
“We are not short of doctors now. What we need is specialists. The lack of specialists has caused the patients to wait.
“Therefore, MOF should give its commitment so that we can train contract doctors into specialists to fulfil the needs for the next 10 years,” he answered the Member of Parliament (MP) of Tangga Batu, Rusnah Aluai (PKR) about the future of contract doctors as they have not been absorbed into permanent posts.
Elaborating further, Khairy, who is also the Rembau MP said that the MOH would like to grant the facility to contract doctors in order to get sponsorship for federal training at public institutions.
With this, he said, the contract doctors can become specialists.
“On their future, I am very concerned about the position and condition of contract doctors.
“Therefore, we are not only looking at the extension of their contract but also to resolve their opportunity to get federal training sponsorship so that they can further their studies to Master Degree,” he said.
According to Khairy, at the moment, the benefit is only given to permanent medical officers.
“We would like to give the same benefit to contract doctors so that they can apply for federal training, which enables them to go for specialised training at public education institutions,” he added. -MalaysiaGazette
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