Health Ministry welcomes contract approach to housemanship issues in Budget 2017

GEORGE TOWN: The Health Ministry has welcomed the Budget 2017 announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak to absorb over 2,600 doctors awaiting housemanship into civil service under contract.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam (pix) lauded the announcement in which many of the graduates were still in waiting list up to a year due to limited permanent job post.
He said the contract approach is much flexible and ensure the graduates could have better training in order to provide them with much expertise.
"The number of permanent job posts could not accommodate the increasing numbers of graduates applying in and this caused many to be left out. The Public Service Department (PSD) also could not create many permanent posts previously.
"It is a good move to put them under contract," he told a press conference today.
The announcement by Najib yesterday brought some respite to doctors who were unable to undergo housemanship as they will now serve under contract starting December this year.
Subramaniam also said the RM20 million allocated for hospital equipment and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for non-profit charitable hospital is well-received.
He said it would be used wisely to ensure better services of the people in the future as a few dialysis centres are being set up nationwide by NGOs.
On the incident of balloons explosion injuring more than 30 people in Kuala Terengganu, Subramaniam said the standard operating procedure (SOP) will be reviewed with the use of helium gas filled balloons.
He also urged Department Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and the local authority to study the incident to prevent similar incident from taking place again.
"Stricter rules must be looked into to ensure it would not happen, " he said, adding that all injured victims have been warded.