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8,000 family medicine specialists needed at govt clinics, says DG

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Meanwhile, 1,136 nurses hired on a contractual basis will be given permanent positions between the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023.

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Free Malaysia Today
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry would like to have at least two specialists per clinic so that they can guide medical officers.

PETALING JAYA:
The health ministry needs about 8,000 family medicine specialists to be placed in its clinics, especially in rural areas, to provide treatment and services to the community.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in order to achieve the target, the ministry was increasing the capacity of family medicine specialists through master’s programmes at local universities and parallel pathway training programmes in collaboration with colleges abroad.

He estimated between 100 and 120 family medicine graduates would be produced each year under the parallel pathway programme, and about 100 under the master’s programme at local universities.

“We started with 42 facilities that had family medicine specialists but now we have almost 1,100 family medicine specialists and almost 700 specialists at the health ministry.

“We want at least two specialists in each clinic so that they can guide medical officers, improve the quality of services, and carry out outreach programmes in the interiors,” Bernama quoted him as saying.

Separately, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said 1,136 nurses who graduated from the ministry’s training institute and were hired on a contractual basis would be given permanent positions between the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023.

He said the permanent appointments for 2,804 private nurses will be done in phases with the public services commission (SPA). These nurses were previously appointed on contract and served at the ministry, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

In principle, he said, U29 and U32 grade nurses with a bachelor’s degree could be considered for promotion to grade U41 or U42.

Meanwhile, to ensure efficient services at mother and child clinics and rural clinics, he said the ministry had applied to make the grade U19 community nurse post more flexible to include grade U29 nurses.

With issues involving contract doctors resolved, Khairy said some problems that involved nurses had also been rectified while those concerning medical assistants were being looked into.

“We will continue to enhance (the health workforce). I have also requested additional funds from the finance ministry in Budget 2023 in order to provide more attractive schemes for nurses.”

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