Sim said the health ministry gave 542 doctors posts in Sarawak but 293 did not show up. He said there are currently 1,100 vacancies for medical officers in the Bornean state.

“We requested 650 candidates to fill these positions. However, we were only given 542 and of those, only 249 reported for duty while about 54% did not.

“So, more doctors failed to report for duty than those who did,” he said, according to The Borneo Post.

Sim expressed hope that an upcoming Malaysia Agreement 1963 technical committee meeting would be able to reach a consensus on tackling the problem.

Sim previously said that Sarawak’s seven public hospitals lacked about 11,000 healthcare workers, including more than 1,100 medical officers.

He said this was based on the health ministry’s estimates after a visit by a human resources team in July.