This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 13, 2024 - May 19, 2024

The public healthcare sector continues to be plagued by issues ranging from unclear career development and non-competitive wages to long work hours and bullying by senior doctors.

According to an article in The Star, the number of housemen at the health ministry has dwindled by 50% since 2019, following a drop in the number of medical graduates. The daily, citing Ministry of Human Resources data, reported that there were 6,134 housemen in 2019, but only 3,271 in 2023 — a significant drop of 2,863 doctors.

Does no one want to be a doctor anymore?

Rising public healthcare bills are a thorny issue for governments globally, including developed nations like the US. To be fair, the Malaysian public healthcare system is considered among the better ones in the region, providing affordable services to the public.

That said, the government should not take the sharp fall in the number of medical graduates lightly. This is indeed a warning sign to the Ministry of Health of the urgency to reform the country’s public healthcare system to ensure its sustainability in terms of costs and manpower. 

Nowadays, even the high-middle-income group is finding private hospitals out of reach without insurance. As such, a sustainable public healthcare system is essential because a healthy population tends to be a happy and productive one.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.