Malaysian Medical Association president Professor Dato’ Dr Subramaniam Muniandy
KUCHING (July 24): Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) welcomes extension of doctor’s contracts and similar benefits and perks provided to doctors as immediate short term steps.
This would allow a contract doctor to now specialise and be eligible for similar perks as their permanent counterpart, said MMA president Professor Dato’ Dr Subramaniam Muniandy.
This came after a virtual meeting by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin with MMA this morning to discuss the issues of contract doctors in our public healthcare system.
“The Prime Minister explained that due to the pandemic, there are currently several limitations in providing a permanent solution to the issue at this time. He however expressed his strong commitment in addressing these issues and vowed that he will personally monitor its progress going forward. The Prime Minister also stated that MMA should be involved in Healthcare related policies for the government to get a better picture of the situation on the ground,” said Dr Subramaniam in a statement yesterday.
Though MMA welcomes the contract extensions as immediate short term steps, MMA emphasised that this is not a solution to the problem as this pandemic has shown how critical healthcare workers are and therefore more positions should be created for permanent posts.
Besides this, the current proposal of a contract extension needs to be reviewed as other factors that may delay specialization should be taken into account, he said.
“We look forward to working closely with the Prime Minister and Health Ministry on the holistic development of a medium and long term plan for healthcare worker’s employment in the government healthcare system.”
The existence of contract doctors came about at the end of 2016, when the government decided to offer contract positions to doctors to cope with the influx of medical graduates.
By offering contract positions, the government would save a lot from pension schemes (which the permanent doctors have the privilege to enjoy) and could absorb these medical graduates into the workforce faster.