'Floating' medical officers unsure of what's next

LETTER | I am among the first batch of contract house officers who completed our two years of housemanship in December 2018. I am one of the thousands of 'floating' medical officers currently working in the Malaysian healthcare system.

Under the old system, we would have already been promoted to the position of medical officers. However, following the shift to the contract system, we are currently stuck in limbo between being house officers and medical officers or known better as ‘floating’ medical officers.

What is unacceptable is that we 'floating' medical officers have been left in stasis since the completion of our housemanship six months ago! The Ministry of Health, nor its counterpart in charge of all affairs medical, the Malaysian Medical Council, have not been forthcoming regarding the plans awaiting us.

Today, half of us from the first batch of contract housemen finally received a notification regarding our placements after working as ‘floating’ medical officers for six months. About 500 people were informed if they were offered a permanent or contract post within the civil service whereas the other 700 from this group remain in the dark regarding their status.

Why did it take so long for this announcement to be made and when would the other 700 learn of their fate?

Since the commencement of the contract system, the evaluation criteria for the absorption of housemen have been opaque to all parties involved which are the assessors and the assessed. No official announcement or source was available for us to identify the areas of competency to focus upon.

In early 2019, rumours of a new grading criteria surfaced. It was said that we would require a LNPT (Laporan Nilai Prestasi Tahunan) score of 90 percent to stand a chance of being absorbed as permanent staff. Remember, my colleagues and I started in December 2016 and were graded according to the evaluation criteria available before the new set of criteria was made.

It would be unfair to measure us with a different stick which we were unaware of in the first place.

Another criterion which has often been brought up is the procurement of an external qualification (the parallel pathway to specialisation). It was made clear to us that should we prove our interest in a speciality by taking (and passing) an external paper, we would be given a higher chance to pursue our interest.

I have many friends who are already taking papers for Disciplinary A; but were, however, forced to provide service in Disciplinary B in view of the lack of personnel.

It is understood that in order to provide service for our citizens, some hospitals have placed some of us to fill the gaps in departments that require more manpower. This is logical from an administrative point of view. However, some of us have been placed with other departments which are not of our choice and this sets us back in the discipline of our choice. 

Some surgical-based fields require at least four years as a minimal prerequisite to apply for a masters programme. How are we going to get enough experience if we are allocated to non-surgical based departments?

Needless to say, living in uncertainty about our future affects our care for our patients. We, too, want to be placed in the department of our choice so that it can hasten our training to become specialists or consultants to better serve the country. 

We humbly request the Ministry of Health to look into this issue so that it can be sorted out as soon as possible.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.