KUALA LUMPUR, August 14 — A total of 6,212 permanent and contract medical officers (MOs) resigned from public service between 2021 and 2025, according to Dzulkefly Ahmad.
Based on data disclosed by the health minister in a written Dewan Negara reply last August 4 to Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew, 4,380 contract MOs resigned from the Ministry of Health (MOH) in that five-year period, plus another 1,832 permanent MOs.
The resignation trend among contract MOs has been declining annually from a peak of 1,354 resignations in 2022 to 577 in 2025.
Resignations among permanent MOs, however, have been increasing every year from 238 in 2021 to 498 in 2025, with last year’s resignations more than double that of 2021.
Permanent appointments of doctors were reported at 329 in 2021, 3,215 in 2022, 5,489 in 2023, 4,057 in 2024, and 4,518 in 2025. However, these cannot be assumed to be total acceptance of offers of permanent appointments.
A written parliamentary reply by Dzulkefly two years ago also reported 3,215 permanent appointments of medical officers in 2022 and 5,489 in 2023, but he added that the number of no-shows were 78 in 2022 (2 per cent of permanent appointment offers), before skyrocketing to 1,118 in 2023 (20 per cent of permanent appointment offers).
No-shows are tantamount to rejection of permanent appointment offers, with officers later leaving service at the end of their contract (which isn’t recorded in the system as a formal resignation).
The number of doctor no-shows for permanent posts in 2024 is unknown. Dzulkefly told Parliament last March that about 40 per cent of medical officers nationwide failed to report for duty for permanent appointments, presumably referring to last year. Forty per cent of 4,518 permanent appointments in 2025 is about 1,807.
Hence, the true attrition of doctors from the MOH isn’t limited to the 1,832 formal resignations of permanent MOs from 2020 to 2025, but will be much higher, particularly from 2023 to 2025.
According to Dzulkefly’s recent parliamentary reply, the number of positions filled, comprising permanent and contract MOs, dropped from 54,632 in 2022 to 43,713 in 2025, showing a reduction of 10,919 filled positions or 20 per cent.
He also said 4,500 contract MOs would be offered permanent appointments this year. Deputy Health Minister Hanifah Hajar Taib earlier forecast a 50 per cent no-show rate among doctors offered permanent posts in Sabah this year.
“For your information, the Public Service Department (JPA), in a statement on July 9, 2026, officially gave MOH the mandate to manage, arrange, and distribute approved positions in the ministry. This proactive step is aimed at expediting the process of filling health manpower needs, thus strengthening the public health care delivery system nationwide,” said Dzulkefly.
He added that the MOH and Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) will set up a committee to ensure that the supply of health manpower fulfils current needs.
