The Malaysian Medical Association is calling on Putrajaya to also reimburse contract doctors and those on temporary status who had to relocate to other states before October, now that these groups are eligible for such benefits.
Its president, Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz said the government, as a gesture of “goodwill”, should reimburse the expenses incurred by the contract doctors and those with temporary status who had relocated since January this year.
She said while a major placement exercise was carried out in July, there could have been doctors who were relocated between January and July and hence, the government should cover their relocation expenses as well.
Azizan said that many of these doctors had to relocate to another state and report for duty at short notice, resulting in them “incurring unexpected extra relocation expenses”.
“A number of these doctors did not have the funds available and had to resort to taking up loans to facilitate their transfers,” she said in a statement.
On Sunday, FMT reported that contract doctors would now be allowed to claim for expenses incurred during their interstate transfer.
The public services department had reportedly amended its regulations to include contract employees in the definition of government officers who are eligible for making claims.
They can now request reimbursements for transport, shipping and hotel stays according to the listed rates, but the directive is effective from its date of issue, Oct 9, which means doctors posted before that are not entitled to make claims. – FMT