We hope that these measures will not include the retraction of other allowances, such as the critical allowance which has been reinstated early this year.
Despite the acute shortage of doctors, long waiting times for a simple outpatient appointment, longer waiting times for non-emergency surgery, these young doctors are not guaranteed a permanent position in the public sector.
The additional six-month contract extension limits contract workers from getting enough time and training for their specialist programmes, even if they are doing the parallel pathways.
The six-month contract follows a previous six-month contract given last April to 2,070 medical, dental, and pharmacy officers who completed their compulsory service.
MOH offered a one-year contract to nurses, microbiologists, biomedical officers, science officers, medical assistants, and medical laboratory technologists to help curb Covid-19.
About 71% of contract medical officers and about 63% of contract dental officers who received permanent posts in the public sector, as of July 31, 2020, were JPA and MARA scholars.
Dr Adham Baba says contract officers are chosen for permanent appointments through “strict and continuous evaluation” during their graduate training or compulsory service.
Although JPA has approved 10,675 new permanent posts for the Ministry of Health in phases, only slightly more than half of these positions have been created so far.