KUCHING, Jan 19: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) is urging the Ministry of Health (MoH) to reconsider the non-renewal of contracts for medical officers in Sarawak.
This follows the non-renewal of contracts for two medical doctors in Sibu Hospital, Dr Wong Woan Hui and Dr Bong Ing Hui, who received letters from MoH on November 13 last year informing them that their contracts will not be renewed.
Describing the situation as another example of the tactics deployed by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government, SUPP president Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian said: “The above incident is not just a termination of contract but a premature end of their path to specialist training (as these doctors already passed part 1 of the specialist exam).
“Given that Sarawak is short of specialists and on compassionate grounds, MoH must reconsider the contract (non-)renewal of these medical doctors.
“There are more reasons than ever that Sarawak must take back health autonomy, a position that I had stated during the MoH’s Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) working committee (meeting) with the Sarawak government in September last year.
“With that, Sarawak will (be able to) manage our (own) human resources, for instance, doctors and nurses as the post in Sarawak must [give] priority to Sarawakians as they are here to stay.
“Besides, there are also infrastructure resources like hospitals and clinics which Sarawakians have the chance to work in,” Dr Sim asserted in a statement.
He opined that more often that not, policies are skewed towards West Malaysia and Sarawakians are sometimes neglected.
Citing an example, Dr Sim outlined that the North-South Highway is about the same distance as the Pan Borneo Highway.
He expounded by adding that for the North-South Highway, there are many specialists to assist and if there is an accident, they can attend to it.
However, for Sarawak, the specialists are just available in Kuching and health is among the people’s priorities.
Therefore, he strongly urged MoH to reconsider the non-renewal of contracts for doctors as Sarawak is in need of more doctors.
To recap, Dr Wong and Dr Bong were on contracts with Sibu Hospital and they were given letters of termination without any reasons.
Dr Wong was with the obstetrics and gynecology (O&G) department and passed the MRCOG Part One paper in February 2018. Dr Bong was with the pediatric department for two years and spent one year as a house officer (HO). She had also passed her MRCP (Pediatric) Part One exam in 2018.
Earlier, Dr Wong and Dr Bong had sought the help of SUPP’s Dudong Branch in Sibu to bring the matter to MoH. — DayakDaily
