Sin Chew Daily

The strike by contract doctors nationwide on Monday morning at about 11am has not created much wave in the Malaysian society. They made sure they passed their jobs to their colleagues before they walked out of their hospitals to rationally voice out their appeals, and when the whole thing was over, they were quickly back at their respective positions and continued to save lives.

What they wanted is very straightforward. They only hoped the government would formalize their positions at the end of their contracts so that they are entitled to the perks enjoyed by other resident doctors, as well as the opportunity for further studies or on-job training so that they could qualify as specialist doctors some day.

Such an appeal is never excessive, and will not entail the question of professional ethics in the first place.

The ratio of specialist doctors to a country's population serves as a benchmark for that country's medical care standards. Currently this ratio in Malaysia is 4:10,000, far behind the 14:10,000 recommended by the OECD.

As for the number of doctors, we are ranked beyond 100th at 17.45 for every 10,000 people.

Obviously, there is a very real doctor shortage issue in this country that warrants immediate attention of the government. The health ministry should take the initiative to seriously look into this matter and map out the long-term plans for the country's healthcare manpower needs, instead of waiting for contract doctors to voice up.

The contract doctor's shortlived strike ended very quickly. Now that the voices were made and heard on the other side, by right this whole thing should come to a close momentarily, but sadly not much wave has been stirred.

The contract doctors have not been proportionately appreciated for their hard work, and we therefore must not stigmatize or smear these people just because of the peaceful walkout they staged.

While it is understandable that many outsiders may not feel their woes, it is unbecoming for Klang Hospital director Dr Zulkarnain Mohd Rawi to threaten disciplinary actions against doctors joining the walkout. He said doctors should sacrifice themselves for their patients and not sacrifice the patients' rights for their own benefits.

How did these contract doctors sacrifice the patients' rights for their own benefits? They have taken tremendous risks to work unbearably long hours to save lives at the height of the coronavirus pandemic!

There are currently about 57,000 doctors in this country. From 2016 to May 31 this year, we had as many as 23,077 contract doctors. These numbers alone suffice to tell us how important these contract doctors are in our ongoing war against the virus.

Some doctor has disclosed that about 85% of frontline doctors since the onset of the pandemic have been contract doctors!

Klang Hospital aside, other hospitals are also mulling disciplinary actions against walkout participants.

Health minister Adham Baba has pledged that the government will not take actions against contract doctors. He says two-year extension of their contracts is only a transitional solution, and he will bring this matter to the parliament and fight for the rights they deserve, which is a positive move that should help settle this problem.

But the thing is: will public hospital directors take the minister's order seriously?

A more appropriate way of doing things is to issue an official directive to all hospitals not to take any action against contract doctors that took part in Monday's strike.

Meanwhile, the police have denied to have opened file to probe the walkout incident, and members of the public should stop all the name-calling so that this issue can be settled positively.

On the eve of the strike, health DG Noor Hisham wrote on his Facebook to call upon all doctors and healthcare workers to remember the oath they made when they began their profession, "primum non nocere", first do no harm or injustice to their patients!

From this incident, we can see clearly that these contract doctors have not forgotten the Hippocratic Oath. If not because of their dedication and devotion, Malaysia's healthcare system could have collapsed long ago under the weight of the raging pandemic.