KOTA KINABALU, Sept 5 — The Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) will begin placing resident specialists in several hospitals in Sabah such as Kota Marudu and Beaufort as a measure to overcome the shortage of specialists in the state.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the effort also complements the ministry’s initiative to move specialist rotation to rural areas in Sabah.

“MOH’s three to five-year target is to bridge the expertise gap in Sabah through the empowerment of the Sandakan and Tawau Clusters to the same level as Kota Kinabalu, including cardiothoracic services,” he said in a Facebook post today.

He said Sabahans who are graduates of the MOH Training Institute are now being absorbed permanently through the autonomous authority of employment, followed by a 15 per cent SSPA salary adjustment, approval of Full Transfer Allowance for officers changing permanent status and a review of ETAP (on-call) incentives.

Apart from that, he said immediate action to upgrade staff quarters in Lahad Datu, Beaufort and Kota Marudu will also be implemented through strategic collaboration between the federal and state governments.

Dr Dzulkefly said MOH has also aggressively expanded the Hospital Services Outsourcing Programme initiative to the private sector to address congestion in public hospital lobbies and wards.

The scope, he said, would be expanded to 15 critical services including dialysis treatment, diagnostic scans and periodic surgical missions to resolve patient backlogs and drastically shorten waiting times.

“This measure is further streamlined through strategic collaboration with Hospital Universiti Malaysia Sabah (HUMS) to fully utilise every medical capacity available in Sabah,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Dzulkefly said 53 health development projects worth RM1.56 billion would be implemented under the 13th Malaysia Plan, in addition to RM75.5 million for the repair of 132 dilapidated clinics and an injection of RM1 billion for EMR.

“Our primary digital integration target has surpassed to 1Q2027 compared to 2045 previously, a step towards realising the vision of ‘One Individual, One Record’ by 2030,” he said. — Bernama