KUALA LUMPUR – The Health Ministry will consider opening housemen placements in hospitals other than state general hospitals and university teaching hospitals for its third batch in the current intake since April.
The decision, the ministry said, was implemented via the online ‘e-houseman’ system on May 13 and is due to an increased percentage of housemen slots being filled, with the third batch of medical trainees involving 792 candidates.
“As of April, the ministry has undertaken two housemen placement series, with the first intake involving 701 individuals and 803 in the second,” it said in a statement today.
“For the following intake, placements in other hospitals will be considered from time to time based on the number of candidates received from the Public Service Commission and other related factors.”
It added that 747 house officers who have completed their training were posted to various state general hospitals in May to alleviate the shortage of existing medical officers.
The ministry also assured that it is in the process of implementing several measures to address issues faced by healthcare workers nationwide.
“The ministry has instructed all hospital directors to ensure the welfare of health workers, despite the houseman intake levels in hospitals still being in the process of improvement.”
In January, the ministry said it would exclude district hospitals from its first intake of houseman placements amid a nearly 50% drop in houseman appointments following the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the figure dropping from 6,136 in 2019 to 3,271 in 2023, health news portal Code Blue reported then that the ministry had decided to allocate placements of trainee doctors exclusively to state general hospitals, Kuala Lumpur Hospital and university teaching hospitals.
The decision came in the wake of Universiti Malaya Medical Centre’s Department of Medicine admitting it was considering adopting a “Zero HO Protocol” due to a dire shortage of housemen. – May 22, 2024