Appointment of contract doctors to be speeded up

PUTRAJAYA: Approval of applications from doctors wishing to work on contract in government hospitals will be speeded up

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said a committee would deal with the process from application to recruitment and placement.

At present, an applicant has to wait two to three months for approval.

"Sometimes it's even longer. We want to shorten the process to, hopefully, a month," Liow said after his ministry's monthly gathering yesterday.

The committee will be jointly headed by the ministry's secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Nasir Mohd Ashraf and Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican.
Liow said the move was aimed at overcoming the shortage of medical officers in the country, especially in rural areas.

"We want to make it easier for them to serve our people, especially doctors who are returning from overseas and those from the private sector who want to work with us part-time," he said.

Liow said work would soon start to repair the wards in Putrajaya Hospital, which were damaged by a fire following a lightning strike on Saturday evening,

The government clinic in Precinct 9, which was closed when several ceiling boards fell during a thunderstorm on Monday, has been reopened.

At the function, Liow launched an online intake system to hire junior staff through the Internet.

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