PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has updated its nurse-staffing figures to an 83% fill rate across federal facilities while maintaining its projection of reaching at least 90% staffing by 2030, it said in a written reply to the Dewan Negara on Monday.
The ministry said that as of September this year, 69,494 nurses were serving in the Health Ministry against 84,286 established posts, representing an 83% staffing level.
The ministry said several factors contributed to shortages across federal hospitals and clinics.
“One factor was the sharp reduction in trainee intake during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, the intake for the Health Ministry training institutes’ Diploma in Nursing was only 153 trainees, which indirectly affected the number of graduates produced in 2024,” it said.
Another factor was the creation of new posts that outpaced the supply of graduates.
“Between 2021 and 2024, a total of 12,925 additional nursing posts were created at the Health Ministry. However, during the same period, the training institutes only produced 4,220 graduates or 33% of the additional posts created,” it added.
The ministry said some facilities now require more nurses than originally projected due to “unforeseen factors such as peak patient arrivals and outbreaks of infectious diseases”.
The written reply was issued in response to Senator Datuk Mustafa Musa, who asked about projected staffing needs through 2030.
In the same reply, the ministry also introduced a key change to the hiring process for new nurses beginning next year.
“Starting this year, new appointments of Grade U5 nurses will no longer be required to undergo an interim contract phase,” the ministry said, referring to the temporary contract period previously required before nurses were placed on permanent service.
A series of initiatives have been introduced to increase the supply of trained nurses.
Among them is the permanent appointment of 3,254 nurses this year, which the ministry described as a key measure to strengthen long-term staffing stability.
It said 935 nursing graduates from the training institutes were targeted for appointment to Grade U5 posts next year, which is a 53% increase compared with the 613 graduates for this year.
“For this year, a total of 3,343 trainees have been admitted for the Diploma in Nursing programme, higher than the intake of 2,265 trainees last year and 1,667 in 2023,” said the ministry.
It added that five public universities and 39 private institutions are now offering the Diploma in Nursing following the lifting of the moratorium on Aug 1, 2024 and that strategic collaboration with private colleges will continue through career briefings to attract graduates to the public health sector.
