In recent years, Malaysia has reportedly faced an influx of medical graduates, with the government accepting 6,000 graduates annually for housemanship. However, there also seems to be a significant amount of doctors who have decided to move overseas to countries like the United Kingdom in search for better opportunities.
According to a report that was recently published, it was revealed that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has large proportions of foreigners from all over the globe working in the country’s public health service, according to the Daily Mail.
Source: The Star
One interesting finding was that there are 1,548 Malaysian doctors working in the country, making them the fifth highest foreign nationality to work as doctors in the NHS.
Overall, it was found that a total of 2,201 Malaysians were registered as staff under the NHS as of September 2017. The report found that a total of 137,000 foreigners from 202 countries are currently working as doctors, nurses, and infrastructure staff in the NHS.
Source: Daily Mail
Of course, British citizens made up the majority of staff members at 976,288 people, while Indian nationals came second, with a total of 18,348 of them working in the United Kingdom’s public health sector. Irish citizens came in third at 13,016.
This report was released in light of the fact that an alarming 986 medical specialists have left Malaysian government hospitals since 2011.
Even more recent statistics have also revealed that 170 government medical specialists resigned in the past year alone, a stark increase from the 158 specialists who resigned in 2016, according to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.
Source: The Star
Meanwhile, according to The Star, there are just over 7,000 medical specialists in Malaysia, including 4,000 in the public sector, which is reportedly not enough to cater to the medical needs of the nation. An excerpt from the report reads,
“This is surprising since there are so many medical graduates in the country, to the point that some have to wait almost a year for their housemanship placing.”
“However, it is still a long journey from the moment one graduates with a medical degree until they can begin pursuing their Masters to specialise.”
Hmm… what do you think of these recent findings from the UK? Let us know in the comments below!
Also read: More Medical Specialists in Malaysia Are Resigning From Government Hospitals
