Private hospitals in Malaysia have failed to hire a single foreign nurse, despite an amnesty granted in October 2023. The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) is now asking for a one-year extension of this amnesty due to red tape in the Human Resources Ministry, which has caused significant delays.
At a recent meeting with the Social Security Organization (Socso), APHM president Dr. Kuljit Singh pointed out that the bureaucracy within the Human Resources Ministry has made it impossible for private hospitals to hire any foreign nurses since the amnesty was granted. He stressed the need for an urgent extension of the amnesty, set to expire in October 2024, to allow private hospitals more time to recruit the needed nurses.
Dr. Kuljit expressed appreciation for the Nursing Division of the Ministry of Health (MOH), which recommended the amnesty to the then-minister of health. However, he noted that private hospitals are still struggling to bring in foreign nurses. He made this plea during his opening speech at the 30th APHM International Healthcare Conference and Exhibition last Tuesday.
Private hospitals are having trouble working with the Human Resources Ministry to prove the shortage of local nurses. This process involves long joint interviews to show the lack of local nursing staff. Dr. Kuljit urged the government to streamline this process by reducing bureaucracy and managing recruitment through a single agency until the nurse shortage is resolved.
Earlier, Dr. Kuljit told CodeBlue that recruiting foreign-trained nurses is taking longer than expected, around four to five months, due to various domestic and international factors. The MOH granted a one-year exemption from the post-basic qualification requirement for foreign-trained nurses, effective from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Extensions are possible upon re-application and approval. This exemption allows foreign staff nurses to work in Malaysia beyond the previous restriction, which only permitted foreign specialist nurses with post-basic qualifications.
However, the exemption requires foreign nurses to pass the Malaysian Nursing Board Qualification Examination for Foreign Trained Nurses. Additionally, foreign-trained nurses cannot make up more than 40% of the nursing workforce in a private healthcare facility. Recruitment must also comply with Home Ministry (KDN) terms, including salary scale and contract period.
The Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) 1998, which applies only to private facilities, prohibits private hospitals from opening new beds unless there are enough nurses to staff them. A survey by APHM in November 2022, involving 103 private hospitals, revealed that an additional 9,224 nurses are needed for the 2023–2025 period.
Despite a global shortage of nurses, private hospitals are trying hard to recruit from various Asian countries. Dr. Kuljit noted that Malaysian nurses are highly sought after worldwide, from the Middle East to Australia and New Zealand, and some have even moved to the United Kingdom. This demand has exacerbated the shortage in Malaysia.
He called on the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of the nursing shortage in Malaysia and the reluctance of local school leavers to pursue nursing careers.
(Inputs from various sources)
(Rehash/ Susmita Bhandary/MSM)
