By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Dec 19: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has urged the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Public Service Department (JPA) to reconsider their decision to slash the Regional Incentive Payment (BIW) allowances for doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare workers posted to Sabah and Sarawak.
Dr Yii said the steep cuts would exacerbate an already critical shortage of medical professionals in the two States, potentially jeopardising patient care.
He called for a return to the previous BIW framework, in which the allowance was calculated as a percentage of salary for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists posted to Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan.
“Even under the old system, we faced challenges attracting and retaining medical personnel to meet the dire needs of the region. Such deep cuts will only aggravate the situation,” he said in a statement today.
Highlighting the severity of the issue, Dr Yii noted that 43 per cent of medical officers failed to report for permanent postings in Sarawak this year alone.
He pointed out that Sarawak’s doctor-to-population ratio stands at 1:510, or roughly 1.96 doctors per 1,000 people or about 21 per cent lower than the national average of 1:406, or 2.46 doctors per 1,000 people.
“To match the national average, Sarawak needs hundreds more doctors, particularly specialists. Policies like this not only fail to help but risk pushing the shortage to a ‘code blue’ situation,” he warned.
Under the new Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA), civil servants in the management and professional (P&P) group of Grades 9 to 15 appointed from Dec 1, 2024, will receive only RM360 per month as BIW allowance for transfers to Sabah, Sarawak, and Labuan.
Existing permanent officers will have their BIW frozen at pre-SSPA rates.
According to reports by CodeBlue, the cut would reduce the BIW for a new UD14 medical officer posted from December 2024 to RM360 per month, a 64 per cent drop from the previous RM1,000. Pharmacists in similar grades would lose nearly RM8,000 annually, translating to tens of thousands of ringgit over five years.
Dr Yii stressed that such reductions could deter healthcare professionals from accepting postings in Sabah and Sarawak, worsening the States’ healthcare workforce crisis. — DayakDaily
