PSD scholarships for medical, dental, pharmacy fields to continue: Anwar

GEORGE TOWN – The Public Service Department (PSD) will continue to offer scholarships for students pursuing studies in medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“Since last week, I held a special meeting with PSD, and they said that (stopping sponsorship) was an existing policy, a previous policy.

“So, I asked for this to be reviewed (because) based on our projections, the need for the medical, dental, and pharmacy sectors is still there.

“This means that the PSD scholarship programme for these sectors will continue,” he said at the Temu Anwar@USM programme at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra, Universiti Sains Malaysia here yesterday.

He was replying to a question from one of the programme participants, who is also a student, regarding the government’s decision to stop providing the scholarships. 

It was previously reported that PSD would stop sponsoring students pursuing studies in medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy following the study by the Health Ministry pertaining to the oversupply of medical officers from 2026 to 2030.

Meanwhile, Anwar said the issue of contract doctors is expected to be resolved in less than three years.

“The problem of contract doctors is indeed a long-standing problem, and it is not fair for them. Therefore, we have started the absorption into permanent positions this year.

“Why can’t we solve everything this year? Because it requires billions of ringgit, but I expect it can be solved in less than three years,” he said.

On the high number of resignations among doctors at the Health Ministry, he said it cannot be prevented if it is due to better opportunities elsewhere.

“Doctors may resign from the ministry to work in private hospitals because of the higher salary. It’s okay, we just train new doctors so that we can fill the available positions.

“For PSD students or government scholarship holders who study abroad, if they get a good offer there, I hope that PSD and others will give them space because the exposure is good for them. This is a policy change that is being done,” he added. – Bernama, June 12, 2023