KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 ― A total of 1,548 Malaysian doctors were working in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) as of last September.
UK’s Daily Mail reported that Malaysians were the fifth highest foreign nationality to work as doctors in the UK’s public health service, though it is unknown who these Malaysians were and whether they were UK graduates.
Daily Mail, citing a British parliamentary report on NHS staffers, also reported that 2,201 Malaysians were registered as NHS staff as of September 2017.
It is unclear exactly what kind of work these Malaysians, other than doctors, do in the NHS.
The NHS reportedly does not pay well either, with Independent reporting last May that lower-paid NHS staff were quitting their jobs to stack shelves in supermarkets because their pay was so low.
Malaysia, on the other hand, suffers a lack of medical specialists. Local daily The Star reported that there were over 7,000 specialists in the country, including about 4,000 in the public sector, but this was not sufficient for Malaysia’s needs.
This is despite a reported oversupply of doctors and medical graduates in Malaysia.
The group of Malaysian workers in the NHS is part of a large pool of 137,000 foreign workers in the UK public health service, working alongside British doctors, nurses and infrastructure staff.
“The House of Commons Library picture shows there are 976,288 British staff working in the NHS - the equivalent of 87.5 per cent.
“In contrast, 137,000 doctors, nurses and infrastructure staff are nationals of other countries, including just under 62,000 EU nationals ― around 5.6 per cent,” the Daily Mail report said.
After British nationals, Indian citizens came second with 18,348 staff, followed by Filipino nationals at 15,391 and Irish citizens at 13,016.
