Unimas has problem recruiting doctors for medical school

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Kadim (third left) exchanges documents with BMC medical director Dr John Chew.

KOTA SAMARAHAN: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) is facing some difficulties to fill vacancies for its medical school.

Vice-chancellor Prof Dato Dr Mohamad Kadim Suadi said they had 50 vacancies for medical lecturers but had not been able to fill that until today.

“The reason for that is we cannot find suitable candidates to fill the posts. Sometimes we get the right candidates but they prefer to work in Kuala Lumpur or in Peninsular Malaysia.

“To come and serve in Sarawak is a problem for them because of our location,” he said, adding that it was for such reason that there were many posts unfilled in the rural hospitals and clinics.” He told reporters this after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Unimas and Borneo Medical Centre (BMC).

“Our biggest challenges are to get the right people to fill up the posts in Sarawak because of locations. There are posts available for example in Sri Aman, Saratok, Kapit or in Sarikei but it is difficult to fill because of the geographical location,” he added.

He said it was for this very reason that they felt it very crucial to have their own teaching hospital so that they could train the doctors in Sarawak making it easier for them to be posted in the rural areas.