Materia Medica Malaysiana

Utusan Malaysia Online - PSC: qualified foreign docs to be hired immediately

KUALA LUMPUR Aug 11 - The Public Services Commission has offered to hire immediately qualified foreign doctors who have been interviewed although they have yet to register with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), the authorising body for doctors to practice in the country.

Commission Chairman Datuk Abdul Wahab Adam said the offer would be made by the commission either immediately or one day after the candidate, who had been interviewed, is found to be suitable for the job.

"However, the offer is conditional - the candidate must register with the MMC after accepting the offer. This means the commission has relaxed the procedures to speed up recruitment," he said in a statement on Monday.

He said the easing of the rules was only for the post of doctors due to the critical nature of the problem.

Utusan Malaysia on Monday published a report, quoting the Health Ministry as saying that the shortage of foreign doctors in the country was due to the commission's delay in recruiting them.

The daily quoted Health Ministry Parliamentary Secretary S. Sothinathan as saying on Sunday that the recruitment process took months from the date of advertisement of vacancies, call for interviews till the offer letters are issued.

Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said on Monday that he had asked the ministry's secretary-general to ask the commission to revert to the old format which enables the ministry to conduct interviews and offer temporary contracts to foreign doctors.

Abdul Wahab said the blanket approval by the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman was also a move to expedite recruitment of foreign doctors.

He said the Foreign Ministry and foreign missions were also involved in the hiring of foreign doctors.

He said the Health Ministry was involved in vetting the applications to determine the applicants' eligibility, experience and registration with the MMC while the commission issued the interview and offer letters.

Abdul Wahab said the Health Ministry needed 1,149 foreign contract doctors and to fill up the vacancies, the commission contacted the Foreign Ministry to advertise the vacancies in countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, India and Pakistan.

In Indonesia, letters calling for interviews were issued quickly as the commission received assistance from the country's health department, he said.

In other countries, the interview letters would take about a month to be sent to the applicants and another 14 to 20 days to decide on the interviews, he added.