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Up to 20,000 M’sian Junior Doctors to Go on Strike Next Monday If Their Demands Are Not Met

Aveyn Toh

2021-07-23 , 2:01 pm

What’s the one thing you don’t want happening during a pandemic?

As terrifying as these may sound, it’s not the shortage of toilet paper or the inability to buy bubble tea.

It’s having most of the country’s frontline medical doctors walking out on a strike…

… or worse, resigning during what is the country’s worse COVID-19 wave yet!

*Cue horror music*

Why Hire Junior Doctors on Contract in the First Place?

As more doctors enter the workforce, the Malaysian government wasn’t able to provide permanent positions in the public health sector to all of them.

Hence, these doctors were taken on as contract doctors instead.

Whenever their contract expires, the contracts were then extended.

Since there’s no end to the extension, the doctors can be kept on contract for years on end.

Since 2016, the government has appointed 23,077 contract doctors but only around 3.5% of them were promoted to permanent staff.

The rate of conversion between “contract” and “permanent” is, needless to say, abysmally low.

There are no clear-cut criteria for these permanent posts either, making it hard for these contract doctors to know if they are qualified for the position or not in the first place.

Plus, the government seems to have turned a blind eye to the plights of these contract doctors, and other contract-based medical staff.

Contract Doctors: Underpaid and Overworked

Before you start claiming that you are similarly underpaid and overworked and that these doctors should quit yapping, maybe you should try to understand their predicament first.

Let’s talk salary.

Under the revised grade, contract doctors in Malaysia now start off earning a modest RM3,611 (S$1162) a month – it was even worse previously – and are now entitled to a guaranteed annual increment of RM250 (S$80).

Permanent doctors, a.k.a. Medical Officers, can earn up to RM5,000 (S$1608) per month.

Without taking into account the many allowances or civil servant benefits that they are afforded, that’s already a stark difference of almost S$500 a month.

Not only are they significantly underpaid, but contract doctors are also severely short-changed when it comes to opportunities to improve themselves, and getting that coveted “Specialist” title.

For starters, the government only provide paid study leave to permanent doctors.

And even if a contract doctor decided to quit their contract and shell out their own money to pursue a Master’s, they will find it hard to return to the public health sector, and getting a position at one of the specialist departments at a government hospital.

Without getting a placement, they will not be able to complete their course and become a specialist.

There’s also the “overworked” part of the story.

Ever since the pandemic started, these contract doctors are hurled right to the frontlines since they are often young and healthier than many of their more elderly counterparts.

Due to the workload, these doctors were asked to put in extra hours, but as they are contract doctors, they aren’t given any extra pay.

Plus, these doctors aren’t allowed to volunteer at vaccination centres set up by the private sector, according to Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) or the Contract Doctors’ Strike group.

Making Themselves Heard

In the middle of July, these contract doctors participated in a 12-day campaign called “Black Monday”.

To express their dissatisfaction with their employment, they came to work in black, and post the pictures online with the hashtags #saveMYcontractHCW, #CodeBlackMY and #BlackMondayMY.

They encouraged social media users to show their support by blacking out their profile photos as well.

However, that had only fallen on deaf ears.

Due to this, more drastic action had to be taken… a strike during a worsening third wave of COVID-19 should about do it.

The strike is scheduled to be held next Monday, and will potentially involve up to 20,000 doctors, many of whom are frontliners.

Burned out and fed up with the snail-paced change in the system, dozens of young contract doctors have also resigned recently, in the few days leading up to the strike.

The M’sian Government’s Slow Response

The Malaysian Health Minister, Adham Baba, was reported saying that the Cabinet will decide on the demands of the contract doctors.

The finance minister, Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, also had a discussion with these doctors back in June and he had promised to help them.

But until today, nothing concrete had come out of it.

It’s uncertain how the strike, or the resignation of multiple contract doctors, will impact the country and its healthcare system, especially with its hospitals being so overwhelmed.

But what’s certain is that the M’sian government will need to move faster than Dash the Sloth in Zootopia to address the contract doctors’ concerns before it is too late.

In case you’re confused about how does the M’sian government works, watch this video to learn more about their politics: