Malaysia must stop asking why doctors leave and start creating reasons for them to stay. This is no longer simply a salary problem. It is a workforce design problem.
Budget 2027 should introduce an 11-point Health Care Workforce Retention Plan:
Pay for Responsibility: Review basic pay, specialist allowances and on-call rates, especially for critical specialties and high-burden services.
Reward Doctors Who Stay: Introduce retention packages at five, 10 and 15-year milestones, combining financial incentives with training and career benefits.
Fix the Promotion Bottleneck: Create a transparent, merit-based pathway to higher grades instead of making experienced doctors wait indefinitely for vacancies.
