KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has proposed that new medical graduates be allowed to serve with other ministries in view of the lack of posts for medical officers in government hospitals.
Deputy Health Director-General (Medical) Dr S Jeyaindran said this could be an alternative measure to the problem as many new medical graduates had to wait a long time to serve in government hospitals.
“The current system provides for new medical graduates to work only with the Health Ministry, but now when there is a glut of medical graduates, perhaps we need to have an open mind and think out of the box.
“We need to think whether they should only work in the clinical section or serve in other ministries like in other countries, including India.”
Jayaindran said the ministry’s proposal should be studied because many new graduates could not stand the work pressure and stress during their housemanship and gave up, to the extent that the process of recruiting new medical officers for government hospitals could be disrupted.
“Each year, we receive 5,000 medical graduates to undergo training. From this number, one in five decide to quit due to work pressure and lack of deep interest in the profession.
“However, we don’t want to waste their capabilities. They can serve as public servants in other ministries,” he said, adding that the Health Ministry was discussing the matter with the Public Service Department to find a win-win solution, he said.
He said this to reporters after officiating at the National-Level Work Safety and Health Day celebration themed “Workplace Stress: A Collective Challenge” at Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) here today.
At the event, HKL also introduced the “Return to Work – Doctors’ Support Group” for medical officers experiencing work stress to be counselled and referred to psychiatrists so that they could return to work.
On the spiralling medical cost for patients in this country that have gone viral on social media, Jayaindran denied this, saying this could be due to the propaganda by insurance companies.
He said the medical costs at private hospitals in this country were still lower than that in other countries, hence benefiting foreigners seeking treatment here, while foreign migrant workers paid lower fees for medical treatment here than in their own countries.
– BERNAMA