A TOTAL of 2,148 housemen were appointed to public healthcare service in the first half of this year through three rounds of recruitment, says Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
“The Health Ministry conducted three series of recruitment comprising 701 officers in the first round of appointments, 803 in the second round and 644 in the third,” he said during Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Housemanship is not conducted at district hospitals as they do not have specialist services.
Dzulkefly said there are 49 hospitals nationwide in which house officer training is conducted.
These include 14 state hospitals, five minor specialist hospitals, three teaching hospitals and one military hospital.
All housemen entering the Health Ministry’s service since 2016 were appointed under the contract scheme.
He acknowledged that there had been a 50% drop in the appointment of housemen since the Covid-19 pandemic, while recruitment drives remained the same as they were previously.
According to Dzulkefly, 4,924 house officers were appointed in 2018, 6,139 in 2019, and 5,113 in 2020.
Post-pandemic, 3,245 were appointed in 2022 followed by 3,265 in 2023.
“Statistics show a clear downtrend which has affected housemen training,” he said.
The Star reported on May 7 that the number of housemen at the ministry had declined by 50% since 2019, following a drop in medical graduates.
Dzulkefly said his ministry had placed housemen recruited under the first two cohorts this year in state hospitals, while some were posted to university hospitals.
This is to ensure that the housemen are able to gain experience in handling various diseases, in addition to helping the hospital deliver necessary services.
“However, after taking into account the views aired with the ministry, policies have been reviewed related to the placement of house officers to major and minor specialist hospitals in phases, and this will depend on the appointment of new housemen,” he added.
Dzulkefly also said the ratio of doctors to the population had improved.
He said it increased from one doctor to a population of 758 in 2012, to 1:412 in 2022.
“We are committed to achieving the ratio of one doctor to a population of 400 by 2025,” he added.
The ministry is also implementing various initiatives to increase the number of doctors in government service, including increasing the number of housemanship slots to 12,198 in 2024, up from 10,835 in 2013.
It is also in the final stages of fine-tuning policy proposals related to the appointment and placement of healthcare workers through the Human Resources Reform Programme, which will be announced soon, said Dzulkefly.
He added that all parties must work together to cultivate students’ interest in pursuing medicine as the profession offers higher grades, attractive salaries and allowances, as well as better chances to pursue specialist training through the government-sponsored Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan programme.
He was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Sh Mohamed Puzi Sh Ali (BN-Pekan) on the lack of placement of doctors at district hospitals and the ratio of doctors to the population, as well as the efforts taken to overcome the critical shortage of doctors.
