BANGI, Sept (Bernama) — Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said a total of 3,850 out of 4,352 Grade UD10 medical officers have agreed to accept the offer of permanent appointment.
He said all the medical officers who accepted this offer will report to the Ministry of Health (MOH) facilities nationwide beginning Oct 2.
“Generally speaking, compared to previous years, the acceptance rate is about the same now. The difference this time is that we are offering three placement options, including in Sabah and Sarawak. That’s the main challenge to overcome the problem of maldistribution,” he told the media when officiating the 14th Allied Health Scientific Conference (AHSC) 2025 here today.
“From the perspective of the Ministry of Health, as the minister, I really hope they will continue to be with us to develop, strengthen, and empower our public health facilities further.”
He said the results of a survey in Sabah and Sarawak showed that many medical officers from Peninsular Malaysia, who were initially reluctant, eventually chose to remain serving there for five to 10 years.
On July 23, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when announcing the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (Sara) Appreciation Aid, said the government would expedite the filling of 4,352 positions in healthcare facilities, including the appointment of contract doctors this year, due to the urgent needs of the country’s healthcare sector.
Anwar also called on the MOH to expedite the bureaucratic process that was causing delays in appointments, considering that the ministry initially expected most or all positions to be filled by November.
Meanwhile, Dzulkefly in his speech said the ministry, together with the Finance Ministry, Bank Negara Malaysia and Employees Provident Fund, had introduced RESET, to ensure health financing reform is coordinated across the government as well as the private sector.
He said RESET provides the umbrella under which initiatives like Medical and Health Insurance/Takaful (MHIT), Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRG) and the National Health Fund (DKN), are developed coherently.
“It is designed to ensure financial sustainability, safeguard equity, and give us the resilience to respond to future health threats. Every ringgit collected will be ring-fenced and channelled back into strengthening our public health system.
“Let me be very clear, this is not privatisation. These reforms are about strengthening our public system, because only the public system serves every Malaysian, in every corner of the country,” he said.
He said the Allied Health Workforce Blueprint 2026–2035, developed together with the World Health Organisation, is expected to be launched soon.
The blueprint, he said, is important as the roadmap to strengthen governance, optimise workforce capacity, and ensure that allied health professionals are recognised as strategic drivers of change.
The AHSC, themed ‘Innovate, Integrate, Inspire: Sustainable Healthcare Through Allied Health’, was attended by more than 500 participants.
— BERNAMA
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