KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — The contracts of six medical and dental officers were not renewed, SUPP alleged today, after four government doctors similarly lost their jobs, including two Sarawakians.
The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) ruling coalition party claimed that one doctor from Sungai Buloh Hospital in Selangor did not get a contract renewal, despite passing part 1 of their Fellowship of Royal College of Radiology (FRCR) UK Papers.
According to SUPP, a dentist from Klinik Pergigian Taman Medan in Selangor from the first batch of contract officers didn’t get a permanent post either, despite allegedly scoring marks of 85 above annually for all three years during training in their performance evaluation system (SKT).
“No reason was given by the MOH (Ministry of Health) to these doctors and dentists as to why their contracts were not renewed,” the SUPP education bureau said in a statement, claiming that these six health care professionals had no disciplinary issues.
“MOH discreetly prefers MOs (medical officers) who did the housemanship locally. MOs who did their housemanship overseas will not be considered favourably.”
The other three contract dentists who complained to the SUPP education bureau about recently losing their jobs worked at Klinik Pergigian Sibu Jaya (Sarawak), Klinik Pergigian Sungai Besar, Sabak Bernam (Selangor), and Klinik Pergigian Labuan.
The dental officers from the Sibu and Sabak Bernam clinics purportedly told SUPP that their last day of work was January 8 and January 9 this year respectively, after their contracts ended. The contract government dentist from Labuan also reportedly lost their job after working from 2017 to this year.
A government doctor from Hospital Duchess of Kent Sandakan in Sabah, meanwhile, said their contract would not be renewed after ending this May, claiming: “There are at least four other MOs that I know of who are in the same boat.”
SUPP’s education bureau urged MOH to produce written guidelines on the criteria for permanent posts, pointing out that Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah previously said priority should be given to medical and dental officers who have passed part of their specialist training.
“The MOH must respect the recommendations of the local hospitals which know best the actual situation on the ground,” said SUPP.
“The Sibu General Hospital on 19th November 2019 recommended that Dr Bong Ing Hui and Dr Wong Woan Hui be confirmed as permanent staff. Regrettably, there was no response from the MOH in KL,” it added.
SUPP was referring to two young Sarawakian women doctors whose contracts were not renewed last November, despite passing part of their postgraduate courses in paediatrics and obstetrics and gynaecology respectively.
“We strongly support the suggestion of Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, Sarawak Minister of Local Government and Housing, to the federal government that Sarawak should be given back its autonomy in the management of its health administration which was taken back in the 1980s,” said SUPP, referring to its party president.
An online petition by the SUPP education bureau, urging the prime minister and deputy prime minister to “treat our young doctors and dentists fairly”, has received over 1,200 signatures at the time of writing.
Besides Dr Bong and Dr Wong from Sibu Hospital, who failed to get contract renewals after serving their mandatory two-year government service, MOH also did not renew the contracts of two contract medical officers last November from Johor and Pahang.
