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26 July 2021

Several Hundred Contract Doctors If Not Thousands Join Nationwide Strike




Contract doctors nationwide go on strike
NEW STRAITS TIMES


The doctors stressed that their protest did not jeopardise any patients as they had properly passed their cases to their colleagues. - NSTP/AZRUL EDHAM MOHD AMINUDDIN


KUALA LUMPUR: Contract doctors nationwide have started to stage a walkout at hospitals nationwide today as their last resort to secure permanent positions.

The protest comes after the government failed to meet the three-week ultimatum set by the Hartal Doktor Kontrak movement for the government to grant permanent position to all contract doctors.

It was made to understand that around 4,000 to 5,000 doctors nationwide have decided to participate in today's walkout.


At Kuala Lumpur Hospital, junior doctors began walking out in black outfits as early as 10.54am and made their way to the hospital's open car park space

Lawyers arrived at the hospital ground around 11.06am to represent any doctors reprimanded by the authorities for walking out.


The movement grew larger in number as the junior doctors made their way to the hospital's open car park space.


However, the movement ended at 11.27am with more than 50 participations after being instructed by the authorities to disperse.

At Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) in Klang, doctors staged their walkout 30 minutes later than scheduled.

Some 30 junior doctors clad in blue scrubs are seen walking out to the hospital compound, holding placards with the hashtag #saveus.

A doctor representing the group stressed that merely extending their contract is "not enough" as it does not secure their career progression path.

"We are demanding for a permanent post because as we all know, there are no future for the junior doctors bound under contracts.

"If we do not get permanent posts, we cannot further our studies. The contract extension is not enough for us to further our studies and become specialists or sub specialists.

"We are hoping for the government to help us by giving us permanent positions.

"It has been four to five years of them (the government) giving so many promises, but nothing has been written in black and white," she told the press during the protest at HTAR compound, today.

The doctors stressed that their protest did not jeopardise any patients as they had properly passed their cases to their colleagues.

They said several senior doctors had been supportive of this protest, although there were a few who had pressured and threatened doctors that participated in today's walkout.

However, authorities at the HTAR compound did not immediately order the group to disperse, instead advised them to maintain physical distancing and adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).

At the Tuanku Ja'afar Hospital in Seremban, the walkout began around 11.30am and the group's spokesperson was reportedly summoned to the directors' Office earlier.

More than a dozen doctors, dressed in black, were seen holding placards that said 'We are your future specialist' as they gathered in front of the hospital compound.

The police, however, had ordered the group to disperse.

Similarly, in Melaka, 30 junior doctors were seen walking out from Hospital Melaka demanding to be offered permanent positions.

The Hartal Doktor Kontrak movement has vehemently rejected Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's solution to offer an additional two-year contract to contract doctors after completing their mandatory working period.

Criticising the solution as "short-sighted", the group insisted the government to offer permanent posts for all contract doctors.



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