KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): More than half or 54% of 100,696 medical officers in the country left the public-service sector in 2022, with wanting to work in the private sector being the main reason, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

In fact, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said, the ministry’s survey also found that of the total number of doctors who left, 45% are currently working abroad.

“Furthermore, 28% of them left due to personal reasons, including being offered to work in public universities (6%), pursuing further studies (2.7%), and opening their own clinics (0.8%), while the other 0.5% did not state any reasons.”

Dzulkefly said this during question time on Wednesday, in reply to a supplementary question from Fong Kui Lun (Pakatan Harapan-Bukit Bintang), who wanted to know the reasons medical officers left the public-service sector.

The minister said the government had implemented various initiatives to ensure medical officers stay in the public sector, including setting the starting salary of contract officers in Grade UD41 at RM5,197, a significantly higher amount compared to other public service schemes.

He said the government also appointed 9,822 medical officers to permanent posts between 2019 and 2023, with another 6,000 appointments to be made in 2024 and 2025.

Dzulkefly added that the government also provides incentives for specialised studies through facilities such as full-paid study leave with federal training allowances and the skill training programme.