KUALA TERENGGANU, 9 Jan 2009: The incentive for over 4,000 medical specialists in government service nationwide will be raised between RM300 and RM700 from this month, Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said today.
“Hopefully, this package will be able to retain more doctors and medical and health workers to continue to serve with the government,” he told reporters after launching the Citrasihat programme at Dataran Shahbandar here.
With the increase, the incentive for special/major grade specialists is now RM3,100 compared to RM2,400 previously while UD41 specialists will receive RM1,600 instead of RM1,300.
The new rate would involve a RM27.7 million annual allocation, Liow said.
He also said the ministry planned to review the incentive for public health and dental specialists.
The government would also implement various improvements and other incentives to enhance the public health service through raising the on-call allowance and introducing a location allowance according to the degree of difficulty, he said.
He said the location allowance was introduced by the Education Ministry in 2007 and would be extended to medical personnel because of their shortage in remote areas including in Sabah and Sarawak.
“The government will pay the location allowance of RM30 per flight to a location by helicopter for Sabah and Sarawak to medical personnel involved from early this year. Before this, only doctors receive the allowance,” Liow said. — Bernama
