YOURSAY | ‘Only solution to prevent them from resigning is to revise their salary scales.’

Doctors, nurses in public healthcare facilities quitting to be raised in Dewan

Doc: I would just like to point out that in a short period of less than five years, Malaysia has gone from a nation of surplus of doctors and nurses post-Covid to a nation which is devastatingly short of doctors and nurses.

Coincidentally, during this period, the doctors and nurses have been complaining of poor salaries, rising cost of living and doctors not being confirmed in service.

Within these five years, all health ministers were promising and promising that they will do whatever it takes to improve the doctors’ and nurses’ salaries and confirm them in service, but I guess all our health ministers during this time are tone deaf and are compulsive liars, hence nothing as promised materialised.

With the advent of a global shortage of doctors and nurses post-Covid, our doctors and nurses have the option of looking for jobs in other countries that pay much better and have humane working conditions.

So, if the current health minister hopes to snap his fingers, promise to confirm doctors in service, continue to make promises of increment in salaries and better working conditions and hope, voila, all doctors and nurses will rejoin the public services; he is sorely mistaken.

Sadly, the bus has left the station. No doctor or nurse in their right mind has any respect for Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, who only spews lies and empty promises. Malaysia will continue to be a net exporter of doctors and nurses.

Mat M Din: The only solution left to prevent doctors and nurses from resigning from the health services is to revise their salary scales. The high salaries offered in neighbouring and other countries, compared to those offered in Malaysia, are very glaring, attracting local doctors and nurses to migrate in droves.

If this is not prevented, it will lead to a severe brain drain.

No doubt, the government must provide additional expenditure to solve the problem. It must be done as there is no other alternative available.

To lessen the burden of providing extra expenditure, the government has to take drastic measures to curb the spread of corruption from taking place.

Amadeus: Mat M Din, it isn’t just the salary scale; the doctors and nurses are leaving the healthcare.

One other reason is the incompetence of some of the heads of departments. Doctors, especially, don’t get their employment contract or get passed over for promotion; nurses are just working longer hours.

Apanama is back: Looking at the above news and the known facts that doctors and nurses are leaving and resigning from public service is indeed very frightening.

First, public hospitals should be well-resourced, as a significant portion of the population, including two-thirds of the B40 and M40, relies on them for treatment.

Secondly, we are heading towards an ageing society, and as you age, some will have age-related medical issues, especially related to the nervous system. Do we have sufficient neurologists to diagnose the elderly?

Yes, our incompetent and good-for-nothing minister and his director-general, among others, do not think of all this, and they do not know how to solve this besides issuing statements.

Falcon: When you appoint incompetent and clueless ministers and civil servants to head critical ministries, this happens. These people do not learn from past mistakes.

When we lack English competency, a silly pencil-pushing individual said, “Bring in teachers from England!” Or fast-track individuals to lead positions as department heads, when they have neither the interest nor the competency in English!

Go check our institutions of education and higher education. Don’t take my word for it. Here at the Health Ministry, some cry out, “Bring in the Indonesian nurses?”

What an embarrassment! If all these do not help our political leaders and self-righteous reformers to acknowledge that we have a totally broken-down system, top down across ministries, and make radical changes in the nation’s interest, who do we hold accountable?

I think Malaysians are fed up with promises and grand speeches without substance or holistic change and reforms. Shocking, truly shocking!

Turnedback: Why transfer our graduate specialist from the peninsula to East Malaysia? I came to know that a graduate at our local training hospital was so fearful and worried that he would be transferred to East Malaysia.

If that happens, he must uproot his whole family, and that can be very difficult due to his children’s education. His wife, who was working here in the peninsula, will also find it hard to move.

Can the Health Ministry be more compassionate and caring to allocate them or such cases in West Malaysia? This is to enable them to live close to their families. This will encourage them to prolong their work and give their services happily to government hospitals.

Hmmm: Turnedback, I am very surprised that a so-called very educated person like a specialist would have so little knowledge about East Malaysia. Being a specialist, there is a very high chance that he will be stationed in the city rather than in a rural area if he is transferred.

I am sure the living standard in cities like Kota Kinabalu or Kuching would not be less than those in Ipoh or Malacca, and higher than the East Coast states. Would the specialist prefer to move himself and his family to Kelantan instead?

RedGecko6275: If they can get better pay and a working environment elsewhere, why would they not leave the public healthcare?

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