Currently, there are only 13,000 specialists, compared to 6,183 in 2019.

Because of this, Khairy said, the waiting time in hospitals is long.

“We need to reduce waiting time and train more specialists as the country heads towards an aging society,” he told Rusnah Aluai (PH-Tangga Batu) during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat.

Rusnah had wanted to know if the long wait is because there are not enough doctors or whether it is due to the issue of contract doctors.

Khairy said Malaysia needs more specialists to also deal with non-communicable diseases. “We need to train them from now,” he said.

Earlier, he said the increase in the intake of contract doctors is to accommodate the number graduating since 2016, accounting for 5,000 to 6,000 yearly.

Before 2016, he said, there were about 3,000 medical graduates a year.

However, not all contract doctors could be absorbed as permanent staff because of the limited number of vacancies in the civil service and also the government budget

To solve the problem, the government had agreed in July to extend the contracts of all junior medical, dental and pharmaceutical officers by a further two years, Khairy said.

He said the government has also agreed to extend the contracts of officers accepted for specialist studies. This will allow those who want to specialise to apply for fully paid study leave sponsorship akin to fully paid study leave and federal training award programme.

On the reasons for specialists to join the private sector, Khairy said it is due to salaries and allowances.

He said the government has from time to time increased allowances but the public sector could still not match those given in the private sector.

He also said the government has also allowed flexibility for specialists to work at private hospitals once a week to earn additional income.