HARTAL Doktor Kontrak has reiterated its stand that its members are not involved with a group of contract doctors who have organised a three-day strike starting today.

Its secretariat said the group is not participating in the Mogok Doktor Kontrak protest and has no direct influence over it.

“We made this stance clear to Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa, police and the media.

“While we are not involved, we believe it is their right to protest and leave the circumstances of the protest to them (Mogok Doktor Kontrak),” it said in a statement.

Yesterday, Mogok Doktor Kontrak said the protest was over salaries and benefits despite assurances by the Health Ministry to look into their grouses.

A representative of the protest organiser was reported as telling Astro Awani that contract doctors had lost faith in the ministry in addressing their problems.

“We are disappointed and have lost faith in the Health Ministry,” the representative, identified only as Dr Jamal, told Astro Awani.

“The problem will not be solved as long as 83% of contract doctors are not given permanent positions,” he said.

Jamal also claimed that between 10,000 and 13,000 healthcare workers nationwide were expected to join the strike.

Hartal Doktor Kontrak is also looking into Zaliha’s recent proposal of a new high-level committee to discuss and tackle the plight of doctors.

“We believe it is one of the correct steps to take, given that it involves multiple ministry officials to expedite discussions and analysis.

“We, however, would like to urge Dr Zaliha to include Hartal Doktor as a member of the committee to represent the doctors,” the group said.

Its secretariat said without the its representation the committee will not be impactful to solve issues and will end up the same as any other committee looking into their issues.

On Saturday, Zaliha said the Health Ministry had agreed to establish a special high-level committee to look into matters affecting contract doctors.

She said the issue is something that was inherited from previous governments, and had been a problem since the contract system was introduced in 2016.

“The cabinet finally agreed to establish a high-level committee that will combine several ministries and the chief secretary to the government for this hot topic,” she said.

Zaliha had said striking is not the best solution to any problem.

Apart from the committee, the Hartal Doktor Kontrak said its next step is to set up a national healthcare commission that will oversee, decide and improve the nation’s healthcare services.

“We will work with Dr Zaliha and other ministries to expedite this.” – April 3, 2023.