Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Patient care centers and hospitals Covid-19 of Malaysia threatened to be disrupted after junior doctors planned to go on strike starting next Monday.
The young doctor, who is almost entirely on contract, went on strike due to higher job demands amid a new wave of Covid-19 infections. However, the government has not fulfilled their allowances and incentives.
Doctoral activist group Hartal Doctor Contract (HDK) warned hospitals and the Malaysian Ministry of Health that next week’s strike protest could involve up to 20,000 doctors.
Most of them have been at the forefront of treating Covid-19 patients.
“Contract doctors in Malaysia have agreed to participate in the strike to express their dissatisfaction with how this matter is being handled by the government today,” HDK said in a statement. The Straits Times on Friday (23/7).
The HDK letter is believed to have been sent to all Malaysian state hospitals and health departments on Thursday (22/7).
The majority of junior contract doctors in Malaysia are deployed to various Covid-19 treatment centers and hospitals. HDK asked the doctors to arrange replacements so they could go on strike next Monday.
In mid-July, junior doctors in Malaysia also held a “Black Monday” campaign where they came to work wearing black. The gesture was made to express unhappiness with the poor terms of their employment contract.
Dozens of junior doctors have resigned citing exhaustion because the acceptance rate of Covid-19 patients in hospitals throughout the neighboring country has reached a record high.
HDK said doctors were required to work extended hours without additional pay and were barred from doing additional work in private sector-run vaccination centres.
The HDK warns that Malaysia’s health system is showing signs of failure with a shortage of hospital beds for patients exacerbated by a shortage of health workers due to strikes and layoffs.
This strike takes place as Malaysia is still facing a new wave of Covid-19 infections which has been exacerbated by the spread of the Delta corona virus.
The bed occupancy rate (BOR) for hospitals, especially ICUs, still exceeds 100 percent.
Several hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Labuan are currently also reported to have exceeded the maximum limit in treating Covid-19 patients.
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 infection cases even became the highest in ASEAN, overtaking Indonesia and the Philippines.
In fact, Malaysia is in the Covid-19 emergency status declared by Muhyiddin since last January.
The issue of junior doctor contracts in Malaysia has indeed been around since 2016 and has been getting worse ever since. Junior doctors who join public health institutions after 2016 are only offered contract positions and are renewed periodically.
Medical graduates in Malaysia must at least serve in the public health system for 4.5 years before being able to practice independently or join a private institution.
Contract positions mean lower salaries compared to permanent doctors. They also do not receive the benefits that doctors with permanent status in public health institutions receive.
Apart from job security, contract junior doctors are also not given a proper pathway to become specialists in their chosen field. This is because the government only provides paid study leave only to doctors with permanent status.
Those who leave their jobs in the public health system for further study at their own expense also face the threat of difficulty securing placements in specialist general hospital departments.
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