KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 – The Ministry of Health (MOH) will undertake fresh research this year on needed human resources across various categories in health care to update its 2019 study.
Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the new study will also take into account the impact of new policies introduced after 2016 and the health needs of the people. The contract system for doctors, dentists, and pharmacists was introduced in 2016.
“With this, the nationwide distribution and need for health care workers will be able to be clearly mapped out and projected,” Dr Zaliha said in a statement.
“This study will also be evidence-based for the preparation of implementation plans for strategies in the Health White Paper. These long-term plans are to ensure that residents can access better health care services.”
Dr Zaliha welcomed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s statement yesterday on the continuation of Public Service Department (JPA) scholarships in medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy.
Anwar’s announcement was made after widespread backlash towards Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Armizan Mohd Ali’s parliamentary reply last Thursday to Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan that JPA stopped scholarships in these fields this year, due to MOH’s 2019 projections of an oversupply of medical officers from 2026 to 2030.
In the Dewan Rakyat earlier today, Anwar said JPA’s decision to stop sponsoring medical, dental, and pharmacy students in its 2023 scholarship programme – which was announced last March – was a previous policy.
Dr Zaliha said the MOH study quoted by Armizan – the Supply and Needs Based Requirement Projections of Malaysian Human Resources for Health Using System Dynamics Approach 2016-2030 published in 2019 – was based on data from 2008 to 2015.
“Projections of health human resources can be improved by taking into account the change in government policy after 2015, health needs post-Covid-19, changes in disease burden, and developments in medical technology and service needs according to specialty in the public and private sectors.”
