The Health Ministry is accelerating nurse recruitment and boosting retention measures to address thousands of vacancies and curb overseas migration in Malaysia’s healthcare sector.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will accelerate nurse recruitment and strengthen retention measures amid concerns over vacancies and nurses leaving Malaysia to work overseas.
“Our priority is to ensure that the public nursing service remains competitive, that nurses’ welfare is protected, and that their career prospects continue to be developed and strengthened.
“Among the steps we have taken are salary improvements under the SSPA, incentives and allowances based on qualifications, including increasing the post-basic allowance from RM100 to RM200 a month, retaining the 42-hour working week for shift nurses, expanding training opportunities, improving promotion and placement flexibility, and speeding up recruitment to fill vacancies,” Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said today.
He was speaking after launching the National Liver Health Initiative Roadmap 2026–2030 at Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz UKM.
Dzulkefly was responding to a question about more than 6,000 nurse vacancies in Malaysia and concerns that many nurses were migrating overseas.
He said the ministry was focusing on two main approaches: accelerating the recruitment of new nurses and strengthening retention measures for those already in service.
Dzulkefly said nurses were no longer employed under contract appointments, adding that the ministry wanted to ensure the public nursing service remained attractive.
He said retaining the 42-hour working week was particularly important for nurses working shifts.
“The retention of the 42-hour working week, which I fought for, was finally accepted.
“For nurses, especially shift nurses, we approved the 42-hour arrangement,” he said.
Dzulkefly said the ministry was also expanding placement flexibility through the suka sama suka mutual transfer system.
He said nurses were among the service schemes that had benefited most from the system, although he did not provide figures.
In June 2024, Dzulkefly told the Dewan Negara that the ministry had 6,787 nurse vacancies as of March 31 that year. These involved both existing posts and new positions created through upgrades and the opening of new health facilities.
In August this year, he said there were 10,557 vacancies among 73,281 Grade U5 nurse posts in health facilities.
The issue of overseas migration has also drawn attention following a parliamentary written reply by Dzulkefly, reported in August last year, stating that 3,021 nurses from Malaysia’s healthcare sector had migrated overseas in 2024, based on Malaysian Nursing Board records.
Of the total, 2,554 were from private healthcare facilities, 353 from the Health Ministry and 114 from other public facilities.
The increase in the post-basic allowance was among the healthcare workforce measures announced under Budget 2027, alongside permanent appointments for contract doctors.
