BY acting in solidarity, contract doctors have shamed the government and put it on the defensive, P Ramasamy said.
The Penang deputy chief minister said the contract doctors have done the bulk of the work in the epidemic but are not appreciated by the government.
About 5,000 junior contract doctors nationwide are expected to walk out today at 11am.
The strike comes amid soaring Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Ramasamy said doctors on contract in public hospitals on contracts have come to a point where they have no choice but to strike to press for the permanent positions that have eluded them for long.
He said it is uncertain if the strike will take place given the many threats from the authorities.
“However, whether the strike takes place or not or whether it is postponed to a different date in the near future does not really undermine their cause,” Ramasamy said in a statement today.
He said the lack of job permanency has long been a problem for contract doctors but has brought to a head by the Covid-19 crisis.
“There is really no future for government contract doctors; only a small number get to enter private hospitals.
“By and large, young government contract doctors face a bleak future.”
He said without the option of joining the private sector due to lack of specialisation, the doctors’ only hope is to obtain a permanent position in government hospitals.
“But then very little thinking has gone into ways to make these contract doctors permanent after five years of service,” he said.
He said it had never occurred to the authorities that the majority of the doctors would be unemployed when their contract expired.
When push came to shove, Ramasamy said the government had offered a “half-baked response”.
“The cabinet’s decision to extend the contracts of those who have served more than four years seems to be a half-baked response to thwart the planned hartal,” he said, referring to the strike in Malay.
“Even Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin admitted a few days ago… that the government had failed to provide adequate funds to the Ministry of Health,” he said.
Ramasamy also chided director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah for reminding the contract doctors not to take part in the protest, claiming that they would be putting their patients’ lives at risk.
Ramasamy said Noor Hisham of all people should know about the plight of the contract doctors.
“It is hypocritical to talk about the Hippocratic oath,” he said.
Ramasamy reiterated that merely extending the doctors’ contracts does not address the core of the problem.
He said the prevalent thinking that the private hospitals would take in excess doctors might no longer hold true.
“Government doctors might be young and inexperienced, but their professionalism and service cannot be discounted,” he said, adding that they must be treated with respect and dignity.
“If the government has no money, the problem is not with the contract doctors,” he said. – July 26, 2021.
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Comments
Is there a need for them? if there is no need then just sack the whole lot of them. Simple. But it seems they are sorely needed for this Pandemic which has reached horrific levels. Previously, maybe they were an "excess" but today they have become a neccessity. So it makes the mistake a good mistake by the previous government. God has made good use of your mistake. Don't make another mistake by neglecting these heroic doctors who have toiled day and night, exposing themselves daily to mortal danger until some are on the brink of total exhaustion.
So will there be an excess after this pandemic is over? The question to ask is actually "will this be the last pandemic or will there be a series of pandemic after this?" Many people are inclined to believe that for whatever reasons, there will be other pandemics after this. The government of the day will then have to plan ahead, learning from the inadequacy of our medical setup during a pandemic, and prepare for the next pandemics in the future. This will require more hospitals, better equipped and more doctors, nurses and specialists.
Meanwhile, the government should also start regulating the number of students each college can produce and to close some of the substandard medical colleges. Meanwhile, lets take care of these bunch of heroes and heroines and do the right thing, not just for them, but for the nation too.
Posted 2 years ago by Mike Mok · Reply