Incentives to retain doctors in service must be seriously looked into. We had proposed that the starting salary for doctors should be increased. While this has been agreed, it has yet to be implemented. Specialists were suppose to be promoted to U2 scale almost simultaneously, on gazettement as specialists, but however, this has not been implemented. The Ministry of Health had already submitted proposal for the review in 1997 but this has yet to be implemented.
Public expectations are high and are ever ready to condemn doctors for mishaps.
Therefore, the MMA would like to urge the Government to support the efforts being made by the Ministry of Health to improve the service conditions of doctors so that doctors who are both overworked and deprived of the resources will be able to match the rising expectations of the public. The MMA would like to see an equitable distribution of doctors both in the urban and rural areas. Currently, there is surplus of doctors in certain urban areas and an acute shortage in almost all the rural areas. Doctors going into private practice in urban areas end up working very long hours and have to pay high overhead charges to compete with their colleagues who are well established. Therefore, the MMA would like the Government to consider providing incentives for doctors to set up private practices in the rural areas.