The Ministry of Health has made the decision to extend the contracts of all the affected medical officers. File Photo
SIBU: The Ministry of Health (MoH) has resolved the issue relating to the non-renewal of contracts of medical officers (MOs) in Sarawak, following its decision today to extend the contracts of all the affected MOs.
This was disclosed by Pakatan Harapan Sarawak Chairman Chong Chieng Jen in a press statement today.
“The issue relating to the termination of the contracts of medical officers in Sarawak has been promptly resolved by the Ministry of Health by having all the affected medical officers’ contracts extended.
“I have brought the matter up with (Finance Minister) Lim Guan Eng who has subsequently had a discussion with the Minister of Health (Datuk Seri) Dr Dzulkefly (Ahmad).
“The Ministry of Health today made the decision to extend the contracts of all the affected medical officers,” he revealed.
Added Chong: “We also thank the media for highlighting this matter which concerns the interest of Sarawakians.”
However, had the state minister overseeing the Ministry of Health (Dato Sri) Dr Sim Kui Hian been more vigilant on his job at hand, the medical officers would have had their contracts extended before the expiry thereof and not be put through all the anxiety and uncertainty, he pointed out.
“The Pakatan Harapan government takes the issues of the people seriously and will do our level best to resolve issues concerning the people as promptly as possible,” Chong said.
The MOs in question, Dr Wong Woan Hui, 29, and Dr Bong Ing Hui, 30, served as MOs on contract with Sibu Hospital but were left in limbo after they were not offered new contracts.
They had received letters informing them that their contracts would not be renewed on Nov 13 last year, but with no reason given.
Besides Dr Wong and Dr Bong, two others from Peninsular Malaysia were similarly affected.
Dr Wong graduated from University of Southampton, in United Kingdom (UK) while Dr Bong graduated from University of Aberdeen, UK.
Dr Wong is currently training to become an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist, while Dr Bong is undergoing paediatric specialist training.