Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek today took a jab at doctors in the private sector over their lukewarm response when urged to help plug the perennial shortage of doctors in public hospitals in the past.

"I understand that only seven or eight doctors came forward about three years ago when the ministry asked doctors in the private sector to help government hospitals," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

In view of this, he said the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) should not pay lip-service over the recent proposal that doctors in the private sector contribute their services to help overcome the shortage of doctors in government hospitals.

Describing the previous response as "worse than tokenism", Chua said doctors in the private sector, "as Malaysians, have a social responsibility" to the nation.

"There are 8,000 doctors in the private sector and if each doctor can spend two hours per day, that will amount to 16,000 man-hours or over 500 working days and that is big workforce," he added.

No compulsion

Chua said the ministry was not compelling the MMA over the proposal but instead studying the idea as to how private doctors could help address the problem confronting public hospitals.

"We are not even saying that it (the proposal) is compulsory but we are only saying that we are studying how to use the workforce in the private sector," he said.

About 8,000 doctors are serving private hospitals with a total of 9,000 beds compared to 9,000 government doctors looking after 32,000 beds in public hospitals.

Besides, public hospitals handle 48 million outpatients and an additional 1.7 million in-patients yearly, he said.

"This means half of the doctors in this country are looking after 20 per cent of the patients while the other half are looking after 80 per cent of the patients," he said.

The minister said the ministry was now trying how to optimise the workforce and engage doctors, who through the MMA, had often said they were keen but unable to do so due to bureaucratic reasons.

"Now we are coming up with a mechanism and want to see how many doctors are willing to come forward," he added.

Chua said the move was not only a challenge to his ministry but also to the doctors in the private sector and the MMA.