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Year 2004 : Year of Resignation !

Year 2005 : Will The Force Be With Us ?

 I must say that the year 2004 has been the most disastrous year for government doctors. It marked the end of the year 2003 which to a certain extend brought luck to many junior doctors. Year 2003 was the transition year for SSB conversion to SSM. This has resulted in many specialists in U48 (U2) to be promoted to U54 (U1) without “memangku” and also many junior specialists who were gazzeted before 31 December 2003 were given U48 (U1) without “memangku”. But the year 2004 saw the frustration of many doctors reaching epidemic proportion and these frustrations was eventually brought forward to the year 2005.

 2004 is the year when SSM came into full force which brought along many disadvantages to the government doctors. Our specialist degrees are not given any due recognition and we are all forced to sit for the “Penilaian Tahap Kecekapan” exams and courses in order to be “entitled” for any promotions. Who cares whether you have a foreign, internationally recognized degree? Specialist who are gazetted just a few days after 31 December 2003 has to undergo the entire “bureaucracy” of SSM. It is really demoralizing to many doctors as many of their colleagues who were just gazzeted 1 month ahead or probably even a few days ahead are sitting in U48 even though they all entered the service at the same time.

 Adding salt to the wound, an extra Gred of U44 has been created between U41 and U48. What is the difference between U41 and U44? Well, an extra income of RM 400-500 compared to U48 which gives an extra salary of RM 2000+. So now, a specialist who just missed U48 by a few days has to pass his/her PTK exams and get good SKT marks to be promoted to U44 and wait for God knows how long, to be promoted to U48, of course, after passing the next PTK course. How long will this take? I don’t think anyone has an answer.

 Have anyone so far been promoted to the so called U44 Gred? Well the answer is a big NO. It has been one and half years since SSM came into full force but until today there has been no news at all regarding any promotions. Specialists who have been gazetted since January 2004 are still waiting for something to “drop” from the Ministry but nothing seems to be happening. Are we going to see any light at the end of the tunnel? This has also resulted in many junior medical officers being discouraged from doing specialty as they do not see anything in store for their future in service. This coupled with difficulty getting into certain Masters programme has made Year 2004 as the year of resignation. 

For the year 2004, Johor Bahru hospital has witnessed the largest number of doctors resigning in recent years. A total of 20 Medical Officers, 2 Masters Students, 2 U48 specialists and 1 U41 specialists have resigned in 2004 at the Johor Bahru Hospital. Currently there are 22 U41 gazzetted specialists and 6 awaiting gazzettement in my hospital with hearts full of frustrations and already planning for resignation soon, if they do not see any light. Many of my Medical Officers who have resigned are now earning more than RM 10 000/month as general practitioners, that’s 4 times of my pay! Year 2005 has already begun to see the same result and infact worst results than 2004. Till June 2005, almost 15 medical Officers, 5 U48 and 3 U41 Specialists have already submitted their resignation. Many more are going to submit their resignation by the end of the year. I am sure the same scenario is occurring in many other hospitals.

 Let’s go back to my question “Are we going to see any light at the end of the tunnel?” Well, there is one man who may now very well shine us the light. A life member of MMA, past Penang branch chairman, an internationally recognized man and an active SCHOMOS member for many years has now taken the office in the Ministry of Health. He is no other than our new Director General of Health, Dato Dr. Hj. Ismail Merican. Everyone would have known by know that since the day he took over the ministry which is just less than 2 months ago, we have seen the “force” that is taking over the ministry. A “New Hope” may now have appeared for SCHOMOS and the government doctors.

 “Take my word for it, every specialist going to be fortunate to be in U48”, this was his promise to all SCHOMOS reps who attended the meeting with him on 20^th May 2005. As a “Man of His Word” Dato Dr. Hj. Ismail Merican has always kept his promises and everyone knows him as a man who gets things done. He is taking a personal task to make sure every specialist is promoted to U48 upon gazzettement and he is going all out to make sure this is done. We understand that he has already brought this matter to the highest authority such as the KSN and it is being finalized. He is trying very hard to keep us all in government service as he is very concerned about the future of health service in this country. He is also very concerned about the deteriorating quality of medical doctors and lack of teaching by senior doctors to the juniors. 

 His personel remark on that particular day was “Tell your doctors, please do not resign as many exciting things are coming from 2005. If they still want to resign, ask them to come and see me!” One of the exciting things he told us on that day was the increase of “On-Call” allowance which was subsequently announced by the Health Minister on the very day of our SCHOMOS AGM in Malacca on 26/05/2005. Few days later we saw the announcement by the Prime Minister regarding the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) and 5 working days a week. What are the other exciting things that are coming? Well, we just have to be patience. The number of new post for 2005-2010, full-paying patient system, National Health Financing Scheme etc. etc may take us by surprise soon.

 “I have been waiting for this for a very long time and now I have got it and I’ll make sure I’ll get it done”. That was his small speech that he gave at the MMA AGM Annual Banquet after receiving the MMA Gold Medal award. With Dato Dr. Hj. Ismail Merican as our DG and Dato Dr. Chua Soi Lek as our honourable Health Minister, we may see many changes taking place in the near future in the Ministry of Health. The Rebellions (SCHOMOS) will definitely work hand in hand with the “force” of both the Master Jedi’s to make sure peace, harmony and satisfactions returns to the “galaxy” of public doctors. May the force be with us and may the “Return of the Jedi’s” demolish the Dark side forever…..