On the heels of calls by MPs for the doctors’ contracts to be extended beyond four years, Noor Hisham also hopes that a special task force headed by the ministry and the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) will see to the amendment of the Pensions Act to ensure  permanent employment for all affected doctors.

Noor Hisham said the ministry had “high hopes” that within two years of the extension given to all 23,000 contract medical officers, the Pension Act would be amended and tabled in Parliament.

“I believe all parliamentarians will support this wholeheartedly for the future of the nation,” he added.

In the meantime, he said, contract medical officers can still continue their postgraduate studies.

“It is our utmost hope that in two years or less, they will be absorbed into permanent employment under EPF.”

Yesterday, contract doctors in several major hospitals staged a walkout as part of the Hartal Doktor Kontrak strike, to demand a fair career path and for contract doctors to be offered the same benefits as medical officers in permanent positions.

The strike came days after Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that contract doctors, dentists and pharmacists will be offered a two-year extension to their current contract of service, with fully sponsored study leave to pursue specialisation.

He also said the government would extend the contracts of medical and dental officers who have been accepted into specialisation programmes in the first two years of their contract for up to four years.

Noor Hisham went on to say that in the push for better working conditions and a better future for contract medical officers, “we might suffer and get hurt in our journey”.

“However I would prefer an amicable solution via negotiations rather than demonstration, more so during these difficult times and the movement control order.”