Kuala Lumpur: The Ministry of Health (MOH) will appoint 560 new permanent medical officers for Sabah starting this October, in a direct bid to ease the State's chronic doctor shortage, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib told Parliament on Thursday.
She acknowledged, however, that with historical reporting rates barely touching 50 per cent, only an estimated 280 officers are likely to show up, encouraging but still not enough to meet Sabah's shortfall of 256 medical officers.
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Nationwide, the Ministry is racing to fill 4,500 permanent medical officer posts in two accelerated phases.
"In the first phase, 328 officers offered permanent posts were scheduled to report to Ministry health facilities nationwide from June 29, 2026. Of those, 39 were assigned to Sabah, but only 20 reported, while 19 rejected their postings.
"In the second phase, another 4,172 officers will receive permanent offers and report for duty in October 2026.
“Of that number, 560 will be placed in Sabah," she said during the Dewan Rakyat's Special Chamber session on Thursday.
She was replying to Mohd Kurniawan Naim Moktar (BN-Kinabatangan), who had flagged the doctor shortage and worsening health workforce crisis in Sabah.
Providing further details, Hanifah Hajar revealed that Sabah currently has 2,803 established medical officer posts.
Of these, 1,863 (66.5 per cent) are filled, 366 (13.1 per cent) are on study leave, and 570 (20.3 per cent) remain vacant.
To plug the gaps left by unfilled posts and officers on study leave, she said 680 contract doctors have been deployed to Sabah.
According to the 2024 Health Indicators report, eight states, including Sabah, trail the national average for doctor-to-population ratio. Still, she pointed to progress: Sabah's ratio improved by 25.1 per cent in 2023 compared to 2020.
To keep that upward trend going, Hanifah Hajar said the Ministry has introduced several measures, including requiring contract officers transitioning to permanent posts to choose at least one placement in Sabah, Sarawak, or Labuan, as part of enhancements to the e-Placement system rolled out in 2025.
She also confirmed that the Ministry has set placement quotas of 650 permanent medical officers for Sarawak and 310 for Sabah through the e-Placement system, which together represent 42.7 per cent of the total nationwide placement quota of 2,248.
