Health ministry secretary-general Shafiq Abdullah said the Public Services Commission of Malaysia (SPA) agreed late last month to approve the reappointment of as many as 1,243 assistant medical officers in Grade U29.

These assistant medical officers, or paramedics, were graduates from the ministry’s training institutes and whose contracts had expired on Feb 2, he said in a statement on Facebook today.

The contract extensions had been conveyed to the relevant heads of departments, he added.

The announcement comes after a report by Utusan Malaysia recently that assistant medical officers were demanding that their appointment contracts be extended.

They had planned a series of demonstrations to press their demands, which included other benefits they were not entitled to because of their contract status.