Materia Medica Malaysiana

Ministry Sacks 46 Foreign Doctors

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry terminated the contracts of 46 foreign doctors for poor performance and indiscipline this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told Wednesday.

Health Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Lee Kah Choon said those dismissed were 19 Pakistanis, 12 Indians, 12 Egyptians, two Indonesians and a Bangladeshi.

He said their services were terminated after evaluations by department heads found they had disciplinary problems and had not achieved the standard of work required.

"Since many doctors recruited on contract from these countries have been terminated, we will reduce the intake from those countries in future," he said in reply to Dr Mohamed Hayati Othman (PAS-Pendang) who wanted to know the action taken against foreign doctors who performed below expectation.

Replying to a question from Mohamed Yusop Majid (BN-Setiu), Lee said the Ministry employed 728 foreign doctors on contract and 94 per cent of them did their jobs well.

India supplied the most foreign doctors with 271, followed by Pakistan (167), Egypt (122), Myanmar (85), Bangladesh (29), Indonesia (23), Iraq (8), Canada (5), Singapore and Iran (4) and Australia (2).

Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Somalia, Mauritius, Jordan, Syria and the Philippines provided one doctor each.

Lee said the Ministry would continue employing foreign doctors to ease the shortage in the country.

Replying to Datuk Dr Junaidy Abdul Wahab (BN-Batu Pahat), Lee said foreign doctors were recruited after they passed an interview conducted in their home countries.

He said they would be placed in a hospital here and evaluated by their department head before being sent to hospitals that needed their services, he said.