Materia Medica Malaysiana

Higher allowance for public health personnel
From The Star Online
KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is working with the Public Services Department to bring the public health allowance at par with specialist allowance enjoyed by doctors.

Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said the move, which would benefit some 500 public health personnel, was to recognise the important role they play.

He said the Education Ministry had already recognised those holding a masters degree in public health as specialists and that they were entitled to the specialist allowance.

A total of 103 public health physicians had already been gazetted as public health specialists, he added.

The three universities which offer the four-year masters degree since 1997/1998 – Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia – produce about 50 graduates yearly.

At present, public health specialists enjoy 70% of the allowance given to clinical specialists, which is between RM910 and RM1,680 as compared to RM1,300 and RM2,400 for the latter.

“The incentives for public health personnel must be the same to prevent their migration to other sectors or countries,” Chua said at the 2003 Malaysian Health Conference yesterday.

Pointing out that “preventive work” carried out by public health personnel was important in the healthcare system, he said that health authorities in some countries had great difficulty handling SARS.

“SARS demonstrated the importance of the public health system.

WHO said SARS had mercilessly exposed the weaknesses of the system in some countries where their hospital bed care was strong but public health structure was weak, Chua said.