Liow: Recruitment of medical practitioners to be made easy

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has formed a special task force to expedite the recruitment of doctors in the country.

Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the task force, led by ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohd Nasir Mohd Ashraf, aimed to cut the recruitment process from two or three months to a month or less.

“We have been talking about the shortage of medical practitioners in the country for a long time,” he told reporters after the ministry’s monthly gathering here yesterday.

Oh Dear! I thought that the problem is more efflux rather than influx. Maybe the situation won't be as bad if people who are planning to leave the service are induced to stay rather than recruiting sub-standard doctors from abroad.

Comments

[Jimbo]

When I came back from overseas 12 years ago, the same old story was being told then ~ they will cut the red tape and employ us freshly graduated doctors. I waited 4 months before getting my employment letter. Looks like things will never change in this boleh-land of ours. I wonder why it should take so long to employ some one when my friend who went for an interview in Singapore was offered the job the next day and he got the offer letter the day after.

[Haris Abdul Rahman]

I spent 6 months at home as well despite already qualified as a specialist. I think the problem is communications between different government departments. They need to streamline their process, and the only way to get a process streamlined is to get people that experienced it to give feedback. I offered my feedback but they ended blaming one another, JPA with Health Ministry, Ministry with MMC, MMC blamed UM. Susah maah!