KUALA LUMPUR: Over 2,000 nurses have left the public healthcare sector between 2020 and 2024, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said of the total 2,141 nurses, a majority of 1,754 of them were permanent staff members and the remaining were contract of service and interim staff members.
He said that to fill up vacant positions of nurses at public health facilities, the ministry is committed to continuing the process of recruitment through the Public Service Commission (SPA).
“In 2025, the ministry plans to recruit 3,228 nurses who are graduates with a Diploma in Nursing from domestic educational institutions, to fill permanent positions within the Health Ministry,” he said in a written reply to Dr Halimah Ali (PN-Kapar) who had asked the ministry to state the total number of healthcare workers that have left the public service.
Dzulkefly said that within the same period, there were at least 5,702 medical officers who had resigned. This figure comprised both permanent and contract hire.
Meanwhile, last year recorded the highest number of medical specialists leaving the public service with 400 people.
To fill the vacancies, Dzulkefly said that his ministry had implemented amendments to the Medical Act 1971 (Act 50) to enhance both the quality and quantity of medical specialists being trained, either through master's programmes or parallel pathways.
“As of Dec 31, 2024, a total of 5,807 medical officers were undergoing specialist training with the Health Ministry, which includes 5,115 officers in medical master's programmes and 692 in parallel pathway programmes.
“(The ministry) had permanently appointed a total of 13,879 contract medical officers for the period from 2019 to 2024.
"For the year 2025, the ministry aims to permanently appoint 3,200 contract medical officers,” he said, adding that the ministry is also targeting to appoint 3,000 housemen to be placed in 49 Graduate Training Hospitals (HLS) nationwide.
He also said that the total number of patient visits at public health facilities had increased by 18% to over 68 million visitors in 2023 compared to 57 million in 2020.
In a separate question, Dzulkefly said that the ministry had also taken several measures to address shortage of nurses. This included lowering the requirement for nurses to enroll into the Diploma in Nursing programme from five credits to three credits effective January 2025 to December 2026.
He said that the primary objective of easing the requirement was to encourage the intake of SPM graduates into the nursing field.
“This will not compromise the quality of nursing training as it does not involve core subjects such as Bahasa Melayu, Mathematics, and Science.
“The analytical skills, critical thinking, and theoretical understanding are still maintained because the learning syllabus remains unchanged,” he said in his written reply to Mordi Bimol (PH-Mas Gading) who had asked whether the changes in academic requirement would affect the quality of nurses training.
Dzulkefly said that despite the changes, international accreditation status of the nursing diploma programme in Malaysia would not be affected as it still meets the set academic and training standards.
Previously, several quarters criticised the decision to ease the requirements to enter the nursing programme, saying it “could erode the public’s perception of the nursing profession.”
