Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya said 128 specialists resigned between January and September this year while 124 left the service last year.

“Their continued departure from the service is one of the factors for the shortage of medical specialists,” he said when replying to a question from Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (BN-Tanah Merah) in the house.

Ikmal Hisham had wanted to know the seriousness of the shortage of medical specialists in the country and whether Malaysia would be able to achieve the ratio of one doctor to 400 patients by 2020.

Dr Hilmi said one reason for the resignation of medical specialists was the long time it took for them to be promoted.

He said the most number of resignations were among the specialists on Grade U53 and U54, who had to wait for up to 10 years for a promotion.

“That is why we plan to introduce Grade 56, which is being worked out by the Public Service Department,” he said.

He also said the government was offering “full-paying patients” rates that were a lot lower than what private hospitals charged to attract more people and enable the specialists to increase their income.

Dr Hilmi said the Health Ministry had more than 4,000 specialists in various fields as of September this year.