KUALA LUMPUR:The Ministry of Health (MOH) is studying several proposed new policies on the appointment and placement of medical officers through its Human Resource Reform programme.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the matter is among the efforts of the ministry in dealing with the shortage of medical officers in MOH facilities throughout the country.
“We are now restructuring to fine-tune the new policies under our human resource reform to tackle the problems, shortage and maldistribution in a single Human Resource Reform policy which would be reviewed,” he said during the oral question and answer session at Dewan Rakyat today.
He was replying to a question by Datuk Seri Sh Mohmed Puzi Sh Ali (BN-Pekan) who wanted to know the current doctor and patient ratio as well as aggressive efforts in dealing with the critical shortage of medical officers.
Explaining further, Dr Dzulkefly said MOH implemented various initiatives to increase the number of doctors at MOH health facilities to achieve the target ratio of one doctor to 400 residents (1:400) by 2025.
He said it included increasing medical graduate training slots at MOH from 10,835 in 2013 to 12,198 slots this year in addition to collaborating with various parties including the Ministry of Higher Education (KPT) and the private sector to attract students to study medicine.
“Based on the 2023 Health Indicators issued by the Ministry of Health, the ratio of doctors to residents in 2022 has reached a ratio of one doctor to 412 residents compared to a ratio of one doctor to 758 residents in 2012.
“Although the indicator of the ratio to doctors shows a satisfactory increase, the Ministry of Health is committed to continue implementing various initiatives to further increase the number of doctors in Ministry of Health facilities and as an upper middle income country, we will continue to improve this ratio of 1:412,“ he said.
In comparison, Singapore has a ratio of 1:270, the UK 1:357, Australia 1:270, Austria 1:192, Thailand 1:1,111, and Indonesia 1:1,400.
