Medical organisations welcome postponement to abolish critical allowances

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): Medical and health-related organisations have welcome the government's decision to postpone the abolition of the Critical Service Incentive Allowances for new professional civil servants next year.

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr N. Ganabaskaran, in a statement, said thousands of junior doctors, dental officers, pharmacists, assistant medical officers and nurses who would be serving in the government healthcare facilities would be affected if the Public Service Department were to proceed with the plan.

Thus, he said the association appreciated that the government was giving time for the matter to be discussed in its next Cabinet meeting in January.

"We need long term solutions to address these issues which have been talked about ... budgets spent on the workforce are investments and the morale of the workforce must be looked into," he said, adding that low motivation and feelings of being under appreciated would affect the delivery of healthcare to the people.

Meanwhile, five professional associations, in a joint statement, urged the government to fully return the payments as the would-be affected medical practitioners had to work at night, weekends and during holidays by sacrificing themselves and their families physically and emotionally.

The five associations were the Malaysian Association of Medical Assistance, Malaysian Dental Association, Malaysian Nurses Association, Pharmaceutical Association of Malaysia and MMA.

‘’Many are motivated by a sense of responsibility and patriotism to remain in the public sector despite the better pay and environment in the private sector or other countries. So, the nation must appreciate their service and sacrifice with enough financial and non-financial compensations,’’ said the statement.

The statement said that the abolishing of the allowances could render the public service less desirable as a career, in fact, more would leave the sector for the private sector or other countries.

‘’The effectiveness of the Malaysian health service will be affected and will surely influence the overall quality of health care in the country .. health is a critical service for Malaysia, and a higher level of health will bring social and economic progress,’’ said the statement.

Yesterday, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, through a video recording on his Twitter, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad had agreed to postpone the abolition of the payments to civil servants in 33 critical service schemes.

Syed Saddiq said Mahathir had also agreed to discuss the issues at the first Cabinet meeting next year.