Health ministry offering 4,914 permanent posts this year

The health ministry is offering 4,914 permanent posts this year, comprising 4,263 posts for medical officers, 335 for dental officers and 316 for pharmacy officers.

Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said applications for the posts can be submitted from today until Jan 21 through the Public Services Commission’s job registration portal at https://spa9.spa.gov.my.

In her New Year’s message for the ministry, Zaliha said state health directors are advised to align staffing or human resources with work rotation, such as by placing officers from health clinics at hospitals to prevent burnout among the officers.

She also called on the directors to relook the need to extend the operating hours of the health clinics to tackle overcrowding at hospital emergency departments.

"This will enable patients who are categorised as non-critical cases to be treated at the clinics rather than at the emergency departments," she said, citing the Auditor-General’s Report 2019 which revealed that congestion at most hospital emergency departments with waiting periods of over six hours was mainly caused by non-critical cases.

On the allocation for the health ministry in the revised 2023 budget to be tabled on Feb 24, Zaliha said she was optimistic that it would receive a larger allocation this year than the RM32.41 billion received last year.

She said more than 30 health facility projects are expected to be handed over to the ministry and begin operations this year, including the Pendang Hospital project in Kedah and the Kemaman Hospital project in Terengganu.

"With the completion of these projects, it is hoped that better healthcare service can be provided to meet the need of the people in the areas," she said.

Zaliha also said that the ministry would resume the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination that can prevent cervical cancer for Form One students this year.

"In 2021, the HPV vaccination had to be postponed due to global supply disruptions, but the health ministry succeeded in procuring 100,000 doses of the vaccine last December," she said.

On Covid-19, Zaliha said the health ministry would explain all aspects to improve the country’s readiness to face a new wave of infections in an engagement session with the media next Tuesday.

She said the ministry was still in discussions with the home ministry, immigration department, airport operators as well as the tourism, arts and culture ministry to see which aspects can be streamlined.