PETALING JAYA: A total of 18,946 medical graduates registered with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) have been appointed as house officers between 2020 and 2024, says health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.
In a written parliamentary reply to Chow Yu Hui (PH-Raub), he said the appointments were made through intakes held six times a year, with graduates placed under housemanships in hospitals across the country.
“Since 2016, medical graduates who are registered with MMC and pass the Public Service Commission screening will continue to be appointed as house officers without having to undergo an interview process,” he said.
Of the total appointed, 546 were graduates from Universiti Malaya (UM) and 797 from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
For 2025, the ministry aimed to appoint a total of 3,200 house officers, and as of October, it has appointed 3,179 housemen at 49 hospitals nationwide.
On the issue of medical graduates migrating to Singapore, Dzulkefly admitted that the ministry had no specific data on the outflow of UM and UKM graduates to the city-state.
However, he said the migration of medical talent was not unique to Malaysia.
“The issue of migration of talent and professional workforce overseas is not new and also occurs in other developing countries.”
He added that the main factor driving this was competitive salaries being offered to graduates, partly due to the foreign exchange rate in developed or high-income countries.
