Proposed Health Commission to address brain drain woes: Zaliha

KUALA LUMPUR – The setting up of a Health Commission will address “brain drain” problems, including the issues of contract doctors, human resource development, and long-term career progression of medical doctors, said Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa

Dr Zaliha said the health white paper, which is currently being drafted, would look into the setting up of the proposed commission – which will be responsible for addressing a number of issues including healthcare service developments.

“The ‘brain drain’ issue is a long-standing one – virtually every skilled employment sector in Malaysia is affected by this phenomenon and the healthcare sector is no exception.

“This is undoubtedly a loss to our nation as we need the right skill sets to ensure that the people continue to receive services of the highest quality,” Dr Zaliha told The Vibes.

The white paper was originally scheduled to be tabled in Parliament last month, but it was not presented since the Parliament was dissolved to make way for the 15th general election.

Dr Zaliha said the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Strategy had outlined recommendations in several areas.

“I am cognisant of recommendations to (look into) HRH Strategy by my predecessors. The suggested solutions in various domains of doctor recruitment, training quality improvement with clearer career pathways, welfare and working condition improvements, as well as fairer distribution (of doctors) throughout the nation,” she said.

“I welcome feedback on the matter as we continuously strive to improve the situation to ensure that the rakyat is better served,” she added.

The health minister was responding to a series of tweets by professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Universiti Malaya’s (UM) medical faculty, Datuk Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, who highlighted that we are losing some of UM’s brightest medical graduates to Singapore annually.

“Each year, UM loses at least 30 of our best and brightest to Singapore. Remember, it costs us almost RM1 million per student to train.

“And now, we are also apparently going to help plug the (UK’s) National Health Service’s (NHS) shortage by sending our medical officers (there),” Dr Adeeba posted on Twitter two days ago.

The former dean of UM’s medical faculty asserted that the problem would continue to arise until the country was serious about addressing healthcare personnel issues.

Meanwhile, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also highlighted that many local graduates from the Newcastle University Medicine (NUMed) Malaysia situated in Iskandar Puteri, Johor opted to pursue their careers in the United Kingdom.

“Half of NUMed students in Johor work in the UK,” he said in a brief text message to The Vibes. – The Vibes, December 24, 2022