The Twelfth Malaysia Plan for the period of 2021 to 2025 amounting to RM400 billion was set as a strategic direction to achieve the objective of “Prosperous Malaysia, Inclusive and Sustainable”. The efforts focused on efforts to revive economic growth and ensure the country’s prosperity can be distributed more fairly and equitably in a sustainable environment. The Prime Minister highlighted nine main focuses. The focus of this article is on the third focus, which is to improve the well-being of Malaysian families.
The Government remains committed to strengthening the healthcare system to ensure healthy and productive people. In this regard, the Government from time to time will review the effectiveness and efficiency of the health system. The national health policies are formulated to enhance preparedness to manage health crises. In line with that, The National Vaccine Development Roadmap is also being finalized to ensure that Malaysia can produce its vaccines. The plan also allows the country to be prepared for any pandemic in the future. In addition, the Malaysian Institute of Infectious Diseases will be built in Bandar Enstek, Negeri Sembilan in 2022. The establishment of this institute aims to prevent diseases, disabilities, and deaths caused by infectious diseases.
The Government has also identified proactive measures to increase hospital readiness, to achieve a ratio of 2.06 hospital beds per thousand population by 2025. The Government will also develop new health facilities. Twelve hospitals are being built nationwide and expected to be completed during the 12th Malaysian Plan. In addition, medical equipment and supplies, including intensive care unit (ICU) requirements will be added. To bridge the gap between urban and rural health facilities, the Government will build and upgrade health clinics throughout the country.
In line with this, the issue of human resource requirement must be addressed. Contract doctors’ extension until the end of 2022 is only a temporary solution. There is a need for the Government to absorb contract medical officers into permanent positions in the government service system. This will help in manning the hospitals with sufficient manpower in order to increase overall access to quality health facilities.
To date, there are a total of 23,096 contract doctors which includes 23,077 contract medical officers and 19 contracts specialists. However, since 2016, only 3.4% or 786 contract doctors have been offered permanent positions. The role of contract doctors is clear especially during the critical moment in the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the height of the pandemic, stories of frustration and burn out among the contract doctors were aplenty on social media. These are signs that their mental health being affected due to being overwhelmed with the situation while at the same time, they are also facing an uncertain future. It would only be apt for the contract doctors to be absorbed into the service as a sign of appreciation of their contributions during these difficult times.
The unresolved issue of contract doctors can be traced back to December 2016. The impact of this issue has resulted in the country losing 5,000 contract doctors consisting of specialist doctors and medical officers who resigned from 2016 to June 2021. This figure includes 948 specialist doctors and 4,028 medical officers.
The absorption of contract doctors may result in increased expenditure for the government. It is estimated that RM2 billion per year is needed for contract doctors to be absorbed into permanent posts. However, healthcare is a critical sector that we cannot afford to ignore. If we look at the World Bank Report in 2018, Malaysia only spends about 3.76% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health expenditure. This figure is much lower than other countries, for example Germany (11.43%), Canada (10.79%), France (11.26%), United Kingdom (10.0%), Unites States (16.89%), South Korea (7.56%), New Zealand (9.21%), Australia (9.28% ) and Japan (10.95%).
The role of doctors in preserving the five higher objectives of the maqasid al-shariah is undeniable. Contract doctors can actually play a meaningful role if they are absorbed, as they directly or indirectly have a large role to play in the protection of faith or religion (din), protection of life (nafs), protection of lineage (nasl), protection of intellect (aql) and protection of property (mal).
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