Boo$t for medical staff

The Health Ministry today announced a bagful of goodies to keep medical specialists and medical officers from crossing into the more lucrative private sector.
It also has good news for supporting medical staff and paramedics.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek unveiled the following today:
• the creation of 298 new promotional posts for specialists;
• the creation of "super doctors" for those at the top of their salary scale;
• allowing doctors to serve in hospitals until 65 years;
• simplifying the format for the SPM Bahasa Malaysia examination paper for doctors who could not be confirmed as they had failed the paper;
• providing tax exemption for the 9,500 specialists and doctors on their on-call allowance; and,
• upgrading supporting medical staff or paramedics with degree certifications.
Dr Chua said the new posts for specialists would be until 2010 when a review would be carried out.
The ministry is making available 10 posts in Special Grade A or Jusa A where the salary ranges from RM7,224.80 to RM9,039; 54 posts in Jusa B (RM6,571.40 to RM8,229.10) and 234 posts in Jusa C (RM6,135.80 to RM7,672.50).
There are 111 specialists posts at the moment.
Dr Chua told a Press conference that 40 per cent of those to be promoted were basic medical specialists and the rest sub-speciality specialists.
As for specialists from overseas who wanted to work here, he said the ministry was awaiting a reply from the Public Service Department to its proposal to place them in higher grades.
He said the idea was to reduce the number of specialists and doctors leaving the government service.
On the new format for the Bahasa Malaysia paper, he said 40 of the 58 candidates who sat for the examination in February had passed.
Dr Chua said officers who had been stuck at the maximum salary would now be promoted to super doctors.
"With many, especially surgeons, leaving the government service, the Government has decided to promote them to ‘super doctors’".
There are 2,233 specialists posts in government hospitals but only 1,353 posts have been filled.
As for medical officers (clinicians), there are 9,503 posts of which only 6,636 have been filled.
On recognition for supporting medical staff and paramedics with degrees, he said they would be be appointed to Grade U41 with a starting salary of RM1,738.43 and a maximum of RM4,624.28.
Dr Chua said they can be further promoted to Grade U44, U48, U52 until U54 until they reach a maximum salary of RM6,492.52.
At present, teaching staff with a degree come under the diploma scheme, just as paramedics, where they are appointed under Grade U29 with a salary of RM928.55.
Appointments under the new scheme will be backdated to Jan 1, this year.
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