Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: One in five doctors doing their housemanship in Malaysia quits annually, and some are working as waiters, running pasar malam stalls and there is even an air stewardess among them.

The Star Online reported yesterday that the resignation rate is alarming given that it costs up to RM500,000 to acquire a medical degree locally and up to RM1 million overseas.

The portal reported that many newly qualified doctors were also quitting because of the longer wait to be posted as housemen.

Deputy director-general of Health Datuk Dr S Jeyaindran was quoted as saying that about 1,000 of the 5,000 housemen employed each year fail to complete their two-year training stint. He said the number of housemen quitting has been growing over the past three years.

The reasons cited for dropping out include unsuitability for the profession, misconceptions about a doctor’s life, inability to work long hours and burnout.

Jeyaindran said many of the housemen who left did not tender official resignation letters.

Housemen are hired by the Public Services Department (PSD) and the termination process is tedious, taking up to a year or more, he said.

“Until the person’s service is terminated, the vacancy cannot be filled and those who replace them have to wait for their turn to start,” he told The Star Online.

The large number of medical students graduating each year is reportedly another reason for the long wait for posting as a houseman, especially under the new e-houseman system, which allows for newly qualified doctors to choose the place of their posting.

The average waiting time is about six months, but it could be longer for urban hospitals like Kuala Lumpur Hospital, it was reported.

“With 10,000 housemen in all the 45 training hospitals nationwide, these hospitals have varying degrees of waiting periods, except for hospitals in Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu,” Jeyaindran said, adding that the health ministry must explore other ways which allow greater flexibility in employing housemen to replace those who leave. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 31, 2015.

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