He said the wait would be shorter for those who opted for places outside the Klang Valley or remote areas where they were many vacancies.

“If they are intent to serve only in the town areas, where they is no vacancy, then they will have to wait longer,” he said in response to a question from Ng Wei Aik (DAP-Tanjong) during the question-and-answer session.

Ng wanted to know the reasons for the long wait of more than a year for medical graduates to do their housemanship.

Hilmi said between 4,000 and 5,000 medical students graduated every year from local universities as well as foreign universities.

He said there were also medical graduates who failed in their interviews for housemanship and had to wait to be called for another interview.

There were even graduates from foreign universities who did not know about dengue, he added.

-BERNAMA