In a statement, the health ministry said it had been forced to cancel the first round of the placement exercise on Feb 28, affecting 2,245 doctors who had already made their choices, due to a one-and-a-half-hour glitch that affected the distribution.

“As a result, all selected postings have been cancelled. The ePlacement link will open again on March 17 for a fresh exercise,” the ministry said.

However, the ministry emailed the affected doctors early yesterday morning, saying the placement exercise had been postponed again without giving any reason.

A doctor from Perak told FMT that the next online placement exercise had been fixed in three batches from March 25 to 27, according to the years they had joined service.

He said the cancellation and postponement caused many problems for the doctors who had taken leave to be in places such as cybercafes to access the link, as they needed a strong and stable internet connection to make their choices.

“Now, the ministry is doing it in three batches over three days. What happens if there are 100 vacancies in a certain state and all are taken up on the first day?

“It’s not fair to those slated to choose theirs on the remaining two days,” he said.

The junior doctor said many now feared there would only be postings left in Sabah and Sarawak and the east coast states for those scheduled to make their choices on the second and third day.

Another doctor in Selangor said the cancellation and postponement was unacceptable for a major and critical ministry that deals with lives.

“Some of us have already taken leave to be at cybercafes at 3pm today. But the ministry postponed it at the last minute yesterday,” he said.

He said that under the original offer, the doctors were supposed to report for duty at their selected hospitals by the end of May.

He said he was unsure if this would still be the case due to the revised dates.

FMT has reached out to the health ministry for comment.