Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad outlined two key structural challenges currently affecting the public health services — supply shortage and uneven distribution, Bernama reported.

“To effectively tackle this issue, the ministry is moving beyond ‘stop-gap’ measures and towards comprehensive structural reforms,” he said in a post on X today.

Dzulkefly said among the reforms outlined are the phased abolition of the contract system for medical officers and mandatory mobilisation so as to ensure fairer workforce distribution.

He also said the ministry will look into streamlining house officer training for faster integration into the public service as well as other measures to enhance the welfare of healthcare workers.

“I welcome healthy debate on this subject.

“Constructive feedback is crucial to enhancing our public healthcare system and delivery, and to meet the unmet expectations of the people,” he said.

The ministry yesterday said the human resource situation reflected the inherited structural challenges and long-standing uneven distribution of staff nationwide.

It added that the declining number of medical graduates entering the workforce has triggered a chain reaction, affecting staffing levels at public healthcare facilities.

According to the ministry, the national staffing rate at 48 training hospitals nationwide stood at 53% as of February, with only 6,500 of the 12,198 positions filled.

The ministry said the situation is expected to become even more critical for the 2026 appointments.

Although all 579 applicants were appointed, this only covered about 10% of national vacancies.