This year, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is offering 4,914 permanent positions, including positions for 4,263 medical officers, 335 dental officers, and 316 pharmacy officers.
Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said applications for the positions were accepted through the Public Services Commission’s job registration portal at https://spa9.spa.gov.my from Jan 6 – 21.
In her New Year 2023’s message for the MoH, Dr Zaliha advised State health directors to match staffing or human resources with work rotation, such as by assigning officers from health clinics to hospitals to prevent officer burnout. She also urged the directors to reconsider whether extending the hours of the health clinics would help alleviate the overcrowding at the emergency rooms of hospitals.
“This is to enable patients who are categorised as non-critical cases to be treated at the clinics rather than at the emergency departments,” she said. She cited the Auditor-Report General’s 2019 Report which revealed that non-critical cases were primarily to blame for emergency department wait times exceeding six hours at most hospitals.
Regarding the MoH’s allocation in the revised 2023 Budget, which will be presented on Feb 24, Dr Zaliha was confident that this year’s allocation will be higher than the RM32.41 billion the ministry received the previous year.
She said the Pendang Hospital project in Kedah and the Kemaman Hospital project in Terengganu were among the more than 30 health facility projects anticipated to be handed over to the MoH and start operations this year.
“With the completion of these projects, it is hoped that a better healthcare service can be provided to meet the needs of the people in the areas,” she said.
The MoH will resume giving Form One students the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines this year as she said this could help prevent cervical cancer.
“In 2021, the HPV vaccination had to be postponed due to global supply disruptions, but the MoH had successfully procured 100,000 doses of the vaccine last December,” she said.
On Covid-19, Dr Zaliha said the MoH would discuss all details to enhance the nation’s readiness to deal with the new wave of Covid-19 including engagement with the media.
She explained that this was so that the ministry can continue to discuss how to streamline various processes with the Home Ministry, Immigration Department, airport operators, and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture.
The MoH, according to her, works hard to safeguard the nation’s public health system and takes seriously the most recent information regarding the spread of new Covid-19 variants in the nation. – The Health
