Speaking to FMT, Health Ministry Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the new grade offered specialists a more competitive salary.
He was commenting on the revelation on Monday by Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya that 150 specialists in government hospitals resigned every year.
Grade U56 was announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak during the tabling of Budget 2017 last month. It is for specialists only.
“The salaries under Grade U56 are more competitive,” Dr Noor Hisham said. “Hopefully, with this move, we can half the number of specialists leaving the public health sector.”
Malaysian Medical Association President Dr John Chew, meanwhile, said the rate of specialist resignations was natural for any big organisation.
He said the resignations were usually due to personal reasons such as the desire for better pay and career advancement or the need to be closer to loved ones.
“Some are disappointed with long overdue promotions,” he said.
“As long as the pull factors to the private sector exist, this drain will continue.”
He said the government could offer more incentives to specialists to achieve a higher retention rate.
According to the Health Ministry, there were about 4,000 specialists in various fields as of September this year.
Earlier, Dr Hilmi said 128 specialists resigned between January and September this year. Last year, 124 left the service.
He said the continued departure from the service was one of the reasons for the shortage of medical specialists in the public health sector.
Dr Hilmi also said one reason for the resignation of medical specialists was that they had waited too long for their promotions. This was why the government introduced Grade U56, he added.