THE Health Ministry (MOH) will receive 4,914 doctors, dentists and pharmacists who were offered permanent jobs by the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said there are vacancies for 4,263 doctors, 335 dentists and 316 pharmacists.

“A total of 4,907 medical personnel have accepted the offer through the PSC’s MySTP offer system, while seven medical officers have rejected the permanent appointments.

“To ensure transparent and fair implementation, MOH decided that all personnel who were offered permanent appointments make their duty placement selections through the eHousemen, eDentist and ePharmacist apps,” she said in a statement.

Dr Zaliha said dentists and pharmacists were allowed to submit their placement choices through eDentist and ePharmacist apps from June 6 to 8, while doctors submitted theirs via the eHousemen app from June 9.

She said this submission process ends tomorrow.

In April, Dr Zaliha said MOH will consider medical officers who have completed graduate training, are fully registered with the Malaysian Medical Council, and meet the requirements for permanent appointment for 12,800 permanent posts. 

Dr Zaliha said of the 335 dentists who agreed to accept the appointments, 330 of them have successfully completed the placement choice submissions.

As for pharmacists, she said 308 out of 316 officers have successfully selected their placements. 

For doctors, during the previous placement selection phase, 3,405 of them had submitted their choices. 

Dr Zaliha said based on staffing provided from Phases 1 to 4, all permanent positions in the peninsula have been fully occupied, while there are still vacancies in Sabah and Sarawak.

“All these vacancies will be offered to prospective staff.

“In terms of permanent recruitment this time, the MOH has received more than 1,000 appeals from personnel to be retained in their current deployments.

“One of the reasons given is personal and family problems.”

Dr Zaliha said this permanent recruitment will cause a shortage of contract doctors at certain facilities. 

“MOH has provided solutions to address the issue, among them, placing doctors who have completed their graduate training at the facility from July in stages. 

“Based on MOH records, 3,226 medical officers will complete graduate training or compulsory service in stages from June to December 2023.

“A total of 675 doctors will be sent out immediately from July 2023, followed by a batch of 1,150 in August 2023.” – June 23, 2023.