PETALING JAYA: Medical associations lauded the government’s announcement to create more than 4,000 permanent positions for health industry practitioners, adding that young doctors need such assurances that they have a future in serving the country.

       Hartal Doktor Kontrak spokesman Dr Mustapha Kamal said this was a positive step in terms of getting the contract doctors permanent roles.

       “This is a good step but I think there are still a lot of things we want the government and the Health Ministry to address,” he said.

       Dr Mustapha added that there also must be transparency in the selection criteria.

       “We want to know what the criteria is to obtain the permanent post. As you know we have around 26,000 contract doctors in the fraternity so 3,000 (permanent posts) is still a small amount,” he said yesterday.

       On July 26 last year, Hartal Doktor Kontrak held a nationwide strike to urge the government to offer contract doctors better terms as well as permanent positions.

       Yesterday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Cabinet had decided to create 4,186 permanent positions for medical practitioners consisting of 3,586 medical officers, 300 dental officers and 300 pharmacy officers beginning June this year.

       Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said it was a commendable move.

       “At this point of time, we may not have enough jobs for them but there definitely must be a process where the juniors become seniors and the seniors become consultants.

       “I think this decision is long overdue. Over 4,000 doctors will be able to fulfil the requirements for future needs.

       “What we need to learn is that in the future, we need to be very careful on the number of students that graduate so we do not get into this kind of situation where the government has to create a post for them.

       “We have to make sure we have enough posts before we allow people to graduate. These errors were made before when there was no control on the number of graduates,” said Dr Kuljit added.

       Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah concurred that this was a good initiative by the Health Ministry.

       “This is a long-standing problem that cannot be settled overnight and I think this is a very good step forward, although it is still not enough.

       “We are creating 5,000 to 10,000 new doctors every year and only creating 8,000 positions from 2023 to 2025, where are the rest going?

       “But, at least it is better than nothing,” he said.