Of Contract Doctors And The Hartal

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From Dr Timothy Cheng
Here is my stand on the issue of contract doctors and the hartal(strike). It is my personal opinion and does not reflect the organisations or institutions I am affiliated with.
I agree that this hartal(strike) is a result of the failure of the contract system.
The two main issues are that, there is no clear postgraduate pathway for contract doctors; and there is no clear and transparent criteria for selection to permanent positions.
Multiple calls have been made by multiple NGOs to the government, but there has been no clear answer. The system is messy – and I am all for change and revamp.
However, there are a few points that need to be mentioned. Some have said “there is nothing to lose (with the hartal) because our contract ends in December 2021”.
This is not true. The date has been extended to December 2022. While this does not solve the problem in the long term, it does mean that we still have time to work on pushing for change.
Some have also said “four to five thousand doctors are going to lose their jobs yearly”. Again this is not true because this would be assuming no one gets absorbed into permanent service.
I hope that the contract doctors taking part in this hartal are aware that you can and might have your contract terminated. Whether it is fair or not is a separate matter, but it can be very hard to fight against this and can cause much financial distress.
How many of the organisers (of this proposed hartal) have already left the health ministry? Please realise that the consequences for participants in the hartal will be very different if you are still in the government service.
It is also important that the “demands” or issues that the hartal is addressing be made clear, otherwise those participating will just be blindly jumping on the bandwagon.
Let us also not forget that there is a pandemic going on, so the strike must not affect patient care. Should you need to arrange with others to cover your work – this will take time and not be feasible in such a short period.
There are also many centres which are run mainly by contract doctors. Our duty as a doctor is to do no harm and patients must always come first.
Therefore, while I agree that there must be some form of protest or push for change, I do not condone a strike or being absent from work.
Again I repeat – the system needs a revamp and we need change, but we have not (yet) exhausted official channels.
Let’s not jeopardise our jobs (messy but still intact) unless we really need to.
Please do not be hasty. There is much work being done – the recent meeting with the finance minister was a result of the statement by the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and not the hartal announcement.
The MMA is also planning a national day of solidarity with contract doctors and this will be announced very soon. Watch this space. You may share this. - FMT
Dr Timothy Cheng is an FMT reader
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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