Govt to rope in more private doctors

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Private doctors are encouraged to volunteer for "national service" to ease the shortage of doctors in government hospitals.
With a 50 per cent shortfall of doctors in pubic hospitals, the Health Ministry is scrambling to fill the vacancies.
There are about 15,000 doctors in public service, making up a 53 per cent operating capacity at the 130 government hospitals nationwide. This figure includes those who have taken study leave or serving in housemanship, meaning there are in reality fewer doctors on active duty.
Comparatively, there are about 10,000 doctors in the private sector, an abundant human resource that Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai wants to tap.
He noted that if Malaysia were to take into account the number of private doctors, the country's present doctor to population ratio stood at 1:1,145, not far from the benchmark of 1:600 in developed nations. He projected Malaysia would reach the benchmark in 2015, but stressed the need to reach out to doctors in the private sector if the country intended to fully harness that potential.
Liow said his ministry had set up a central committee, chaired by himself, to work out a mechanism to get more doctors into the civil service.
He said there were many private doctors who had volunteered for national service, so the onus was on the government to get them to do so.
"We need to open an avenue where doctors in private practice can voluntarily come aboard. They have performed their national service in the first three years of their careers, but we encourage them to do more," he said after witnessing the MS ISO-9001:2000 accreditation of Tung Shin Hospital here yesterday.