Medical officers with six months contracts can now apply for contract extension, permanent posts, says SUPP Education Bureau chief

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Dr Wong, Ding, Ching Yong, Tian and Teng at the press conference.

SIBU: All 79 Medical Officers (MOs) who were given six-months contracts can now apply for contract extension or permanent posts, says Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Education Bureau Chief Datuk Ding Kuong Hing.

He said this was part of the consensus that was reached between the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and Health Ministry (MoH) during a July 2 meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

“Originally, it was stated in their six-month contracts that it was only a one-off offer. Details on the mechanism to apply for contract extension would be released by the MOH later,” he said in a press conference today.

On June 30, SUPP Education Bureau forwarded a letter of public appeal to the Prime Minister and 222 Members of Parliament (MPs) seeking fair treatment and solution to be given these 79 MOs.

These affected MOs were not being offered permanent posts in hospital and are only being given six months country in the country because they did their housemanship overseas.

In the letter, one of the requests they presented was that a permanent post or at least a 10-year contract to these affected MOs.

Ding, who is also Meradong assemblyman said that these extended contracts were meant only for the MOs who are attempting to specialise and would be tied to a bond with MOH later on.

He said MMA had been assured by the MOH that a solution was being put in place with suggestions from MMA taken into consideration.

“This policy is also aimed to improve the specialist training as well as providing specialists’ services for the rural areas which seriously lack such medical services,” he said.

He also said that SUPP had identified 79 MOs nationwide that had been affected although he believed that there could be more in the nation facing the same problem.

Another issue, he said that the upgrading of salary of MOs on contract from the scale of UD41 to UD43 was being resolved.

He said additional funding needed for the MOH was being discussed in the meeting and it is now at the levels of Public Service Department and Ministry of Finance now.

“Hopefully, there is a closure to this issue soon,” he said.

However, he said SUPP was still disappointed that it had not heard any news on requests regarding priorities to be given to post Sarawakian and Sabahan MOs to hospitals in their home states.

“SUPP Education Bureau hereby strongly urges all MPs from Sabah and Sarawak to continue to fight for this reasonable request which is in the line with the ‘Borneonisation’ stipulated under MA 1963,” he said.

Meanwhile, MMA Sibu branch chairman Dr Wong Chya Wei said Malaysia was facing a severe shortage of specialists.

Thus, he said it important for the nation to be able to provide a system whereby MOs can be given the opportunity to be trained to enable them to become specialists in the disciplines that they are interested in.

He also said that Malaysia is fortunate that there were Master’s programmes in various medical disciplines available at public universities.

“Malaysia is also very blessed in a sense that our diseases are very wide ranged. We do see a variety of problems locally which sometimes in the overseas training, you may not encounter,” he said.

Thus, he believed Malaysia has a good training ground for local MOs to be able to be trained under proper guidance and supervision to become specialist.

“If we deny them this kind of opportunity where would they be able to get their training? Few of them may have the opportunity to pursue it overseas and that inevitable will lead to a brain drain in this country.

“I urged MOH to look into this issue on retaining good brains within this country so that they are able to be trained locally and be able to serve the country,” he pointed out.

Also present at the press conference were SUPP Dudong Branch chairman Wong Ching Yong, SUPP Dudong Youth Branch Chief Benjamin Tian, and political secretary Teng Ung Woo