Better pay for specialists

The Star

KLANG: The Health Ministry is stepping up efforts to get Malaysian specialists overseas to return home by offering them better remuneration.

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said the Ministry would offer these specialists salaries in the top-most higher management tier, Jusa grades A to C, depending on their experience.

“This will enable them to earn more than RM10,000 a month including allowances,” he said.

This was an upgrade from the current U54 senior officer post offer, which offers less than RM10,000, he added.

Only 112 overseas specialists had returned to Malaysia in the last five years, and the ministry hoped more would come home and serve the people, Liow said.

Asked why some Malaysian specialists abroad had complained that they experienced difficulty in returning home to work, he said it likely had to do with negotiations on salary, perks and working conditions.

“We were using all kinds of means to overcome the shortage of doctors – increasing intake, hiring foreign doctors and increasing incentives. These did not solve the problem.

“Now we are asking the specialists to come home,” he said.

With the country short of 9,000 doctors, he urged general practitioners to return to government hospitals and clinics once or twice a month to contribute their services, just like private specialists are doing.

These doctors would be paid RM80 an hour, he said after launching the Taiwanese graduates’ alumni annual general meeting yesterday.

On a plan to release genetically-modified (GM) “killer” Aedes mosquitoes in the fishing village of Pulau Ketam in Selangor as part of international field trials to fight dengue, he said it would be a breakthrough if it was successful.

However, for now, the ministry would look into environmental and other concerns.

It was reported in an English newspaper yesterday that the GM male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes would be released into the wild to eliminate the Aedes mosquito, which spreads dengue fever.