Ideally, they should revert back to the old BIW framework(percentage of salary) for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists posted to Sabah/Sarawak/Labuan. Even with this system, we had troubles attracting and retaining medical professionals to address the dire need of medical professionals in the region.
Such steep cuts will just aggravate an already dire situation of insufficient medical professionals in Sabah and Sarawak, jeopardising the quality of care for our patients.
The recent statistics of 43% MO no-shows in Sarawak for permanent postings this year itself should serve as an alarm on the critical situation we are in.
The Sarawak Doctor-to-Population Ratio is Approximately 1:510
This translates to about 1.96 doctors per 1,000 population. In comparison to the national average of approximately 1:406
Or 2.46 doctors per 1000 population.
Which means Sarawak has roughly 21% fewer doctors per capita than the national average
To match the national average, Sarawak would need hundreds more doctors, especially specialists, and such policies notnonly doesnt help, but may send the lack of medical personnel situation in the region to Codeblue (grave situation).