THE lack of placement for medical graduates is due to a shortage of facilities that is exacerbated by a lack of funds in healthcare, said Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

The high number of doctors unable to find training placements is not so much a case of an excessive number of graduates but lack of facilities throughout the country, he said.

“It’s all decided by funding. If we want to move forward, we need to improve the facilities and it depends on our financial capability.”

Last June, the ministry extended a moratorium on the introduction of new medical programmes until April 30, 2021.

There is also a freeze in student numbers under existing local medical programmes during the moratorium.

While the moratorium will keep in check the number of new medical graduates, the government still has to deal with the placement of up to 6,000 graduates each year, he said.

To ease the government’s burden, the ministry has raised the number of private sector placements from 10,835 to 11,706. A total of 47 private hospitals are currently under the private training hospital programme.

Another step taken by the government is to introduce virtual clinics for medical graduates.

“We need to think creatively and innovatively, to give them an opportunity to work.

“That’s why the private sector also has to open opportunities (for training) and the public sector needs to switch to virtual clinics.”

In December, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced the Budget 2019 allocation for health services at RM29 billion, a RM2 billion increase from last year’s RM27 billion.

While the amount makes up almost 10% of the total budget, Dzulkefly said it still fell short of the minimum 6% of gross domestic product required for all developed nations.

“Because of the financial situation now, we cannot fulfil the rate of a developed nation, so the health allocation is insufficient,” he said recently to mark Pakatan Harapan’s first year in power.

In March, he announced the setting up of the Health Advisory Council that is made up of seven panellists from the private and public healthcare sector.

The council is tasked with advising the ministry on strengthening healthcare delivery, with an immediate focus on public-private partnership in healthcare and human capital development.

The council will submit a proposal to the government on these issues by the third quarter of this year, he said.

“We hope they will be able to provide some guidance that will increase the relationship between the public and private sectors in all areas.”

Dzulkefly said he hopes to fix the imbalance between the private and public health sectors, in terms of charges as well as services.

“For example, we have supposedly 40% of the workforce in the public sector caring for 60% of all cases, and 60% of the private sector workforce handling 40% of the cases

“Judging from that, the workload on the public facilities and the workload for the private facilities are incompatible.

“I am faced with a challenge of how to balance it out.” – May 3, 2019.