[UPDATED] MoH to offer nearly 5,000 permanent posts this year: Zaliha

KUALA LUMPUR – The Health Ministry is offering 4,914 permanent posts this year, as part of ongoing efforts to address the problems of contract doctors.

Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said 4,263 of these posts are for medical officers, 335 are for dental officers, and 316 are for pharmacists.

“The vacancies will be advertised from today until January 21. So I urge those who are eligible to apply,” she said in a speech to ministry staff to outline the ministry’s plans for the year in Putrajaya this morning.

In an immediate response, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) welcomed the new permanent positions, thanking Dr Zaliha for delivering on her promise to open up more posts for contract medical officers.

“It is beyond our expectations. The MMA will continue to engage and work with the Health Ministry towards addressing the contract doctor issue and securing more permanent posts. It is still not over yet, but today’s announcement is a big step in the right direction,” said MMA president Dr Muruga Raj Rajathurai in a brief statement to The Vibes.

Other areas of focus for the ministry this year include addressing the shortage of skilled staff along with improving services to reduce waiting times at hospital emergency departments.

Part of this includes studying the need to have public health clinics operate on “extended hours” to ease the mass of non-critical patients at emergency departments, Dr Zaliha said.

Based on an audit in 2019, congestion at hospital emergency departments have resulted in patients waiting for up to six hours, the minister said.

“It was also found that 70% of cases received at hospital emergency departments are non-critical cases,” she added.

While some clinics at certain hospitals have begun operating on extended hours, she urged more to do the same and instructed district health officers to look into implementing these hours at clinics in their localities.

The ministry will also expand online clinical consultation services, which are currently available at over 200 public health clinics, to reduce patient congestion at another 100 facilities.

Virtual dental consultations or teledentistry will also be implemented at 114 public dental clinics, Dr Zaliha added.

She also announced the resumption of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for girls to prevent cervical cancer, which was started in 2021 but delayed due to global supply chain issues.

“The ministry has managed to procure 100,000 doses of the HPV vaccine in December last year, and will give the vaccines to Form 1 students this year.”

Dr Zaliha also said the ministry will ramp up immunisation of children and babies following a drop in numbers receiving vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic years. – The Vibes, January 6, 2023