More than half of MOH medical officers who resigned from 2024 to 2026 joined the private sector, while 13,072 specialist and non-specialist posts remained vacant.
KUALA LUMPUR: More than half of the medical officers who resigned from the Health Ministry (MOH) between 2024 and 2026 moved to the private sector, while 13,072 specialist and non-specialist medical officer positions remained vacant nationwide as of June 30.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the ministry had appointed thousands of medical officers during the same period, although some had subsequently resigned.
“From 2024 to 2026, MOH appointed 14,064 permanent medical officers and 9,847 contract medical officers.
“Of these, 1,252 permanent medical officers and 2,258 contract medical officers resigned,” he said in a written parliamentary reply dated Oct 21.
The figures represent a total of 3,510 resignations, while vacancies remained across specialist and non-specialist positions.
“As of June 30, 2026, there were 1,660 vacancies for specialist medical officers and 11,412 vacancies for non-specialist medical officers,” he said.
Dzulkefly said 51.4% of those who resigned moved to the private sector, while 36.8% cited personal reasons and 4.5% joined statutory bodies.
Another 2.9% left to work or settle overseas, 2.6% cited health problems, 1.5% pursued further studies and 0.3% opened their own clinics.
He said eight medical specialists had also resigned or migrated overseas during the same period.
Dzulkefly was responding to Ganabatirau Veraman (PH-Klang), who asked about medical officer resignations, migration overseas, staffing vacancies, specialist shortages, housemanship placements and measures to retain healthcare personnel.
On housemanship placements, Dzulkefly said 6,580 of the 12,198 available training slots across 48 housemanship training hospitals nationwide had been filled, representing an occupancy rate of 54%.
“This shows that the housemanship training capacity at MOH facilities remains sufficient to accommodate eligible medical graduates.
“Therefore, at present, no medical graduates need to wait for vacancies to begin their housemanship training,” he said.
To address healthcare workforce shortages, Dzulkefly said 4,500 contract medical officers had been offered permanent appointments this year following continued discussions with central agencies to improve career security.
He said the Public Service Department (JPA) had established an MOH workforce management task force in April to examine staffing issues and resolve problems related to personnel management.
The task force’s steering committee is chaired by the Public Service director-general and includes senior officials from MOH, the Treasury, the Public Service Commission and JPA.
Dzulkefly said MOH and the Higher Education Ministry had also strengthened cooperation to align the supply of healthcare workers with national requirements.
Both ministries held a strategic cooperation workshop from Sept 7 to 9, with a follow-up meeting scheduled for Oct 14 to discuss its findings.
He added that JPA had authorised MOH on July 9 to manage, reorganise and redistribute approved positions independently to accelerate recruitment and strengthen public healthcare services.