Govt to review allowances to keep medical specialists in service

Star: KUCHING: A proposal has been made by the Health Ministry to review allowances for specialists to keep them in government service.
Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said it would also include those from other disciplines, including dental and public health.
“As an incentive, the Health Ministry has proposed that the specialist allowance be reviewed,” he said in his speech at the Malaysian Medical Association’s (MMA) annual dinner on Friday.
“It is worth mentioning here that the last review was conducted about 20 years ago.”
He added that the ministry was working with the Public Service Department to create a scheme for junior doctors to attract more of them to join the service.
“Annually, an average of 300 medical officers and 50 specialists (majority in UD41, UD44 and UD48 grades) resign from the Health Ministry,” he said.
“The welfare of the current UD41 medical officers appointed before this year will benefit through appropriate adjustments in their grades.”
He assured that the two-year extension on the housemanship, which started this year would not delay their entry into the masters programme.
Liow said the MMA had extended the duration of the house officers’ training due to poor performance.
“The ministry is concerned that a large number of our house officers are not ready and do not have the capability to provide adequate service when posted to district hospitals on completion of their housemanship training,” Liow said.
He also said that a mandatory national incident reporting and learning system would be finalised by year-end.
The ministry was also working with the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia to draw up a national set of patient safety indicators later this year, Liow added.