Compulsory Service for New Doctors Reduced to 2 Years with immediate effect

STAR16042010
The compulsory service period for medical practitioners has been reduced from three years to two years with immediate effect, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

He said this was in accordance with the longer internship training from one year to two years.

“The move to shorten the compulsory service would encourage doctors to remain in the country,” he said, adding that it would indirectly discourage a brain drain.

Liow also announced that Malay­sian doctors working overseas and who had pursued their studies abroad at their own expense were exempted from compulsory service.

“However, they must have documented clinical experience of more than 10 years,” he said at the launch of a healthy lifestyle campaign here yesterday.

Previously, Liow had announced that doctors above 45 years would get total exemption.

For those below 45 years, exemption will be given if they possess a rare sub-specialty as determined by a committee on exemption of compulsory service or if they had served in public or private universities or military hospitals for a continuous period of two years.