Three main reasons for lack of nurses, doctors in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU (Nov 20): Sabah’s shortage of nurses and doctors can be attributed mainly to lack of allocation and postings as well as brain drain, said State Community Development and People’s Wellbeing (KPMKR) Minister Datuk James Ratib.

James said the problem with lack of finances for the state is that they cannot issue more appointment warrants, despite the Ministry of Health Training Institute (ILKKM) Sabah taking in around 1,200 students every year.

He said another problem is that even though this institute takes in more than a thousand students annually, only 70 to 80 percent of the graduates end up serving in Sabah, while the rest are transferred to the Peninsular.

“Parents have come up to me, asking to not send their children to work in Terengganu, Kelantan, Johor, etc., but I have no choice because our postings are limited.

“Many of our nursing graduates have to work overseas. For example, Hospital UMS is training 60 Sabah students, but where will they be working? In Singapore.

“So this is quite saddening. Our problems are economical constraints and appointment warrants, which are the same for not only our nurses, but also doctors.

“We are still short of thousands of doctors in Sabah, but we don’t have the allocation warrants for them, so post confirmations for our doctors are severely lacking.

“This is why there are doctors who either quit, went back to the Peninsular, opened up their own clinics, or worked for others in the private sector,” he said at a State Assembly sitting question-and-answer session here on Wednesday.

He was responding to Sulabayan assemblyman Datuk Dr Jaujan Sambakong, who had pointed out the high unemployment rate for the state’s medical graduates and the importance of health in effective governance.

Senallang assemblyman Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal also posed the minister several additional questions, including why there is no coordination between the State Government and Federal Government in terms of health allocations.

Shafie had highlighted that just this year alone, the Ministry of Health (MoH) received the second highest allocation in Budget 2025 with RM45.3 billion, wondering why no guidelines were established to address the state’s needs.

James said his side is aware of the financial constraints faced in this regard, but stressed that he is doing everything in his power to address issues facing the state’s health sector.

“Whenever there is a meeting in Putrajaya chaired by the MoH minister, I would always voice out our problems in Sabah.

“Each year, we are supposed to get around RM3 billion allocation for the state, but we only get half of that,” he said, although he did not specify which allocation.

Shafie also questioned KPMKR’s efforts to address bullying and suicide cases in Sabah’s medical sector, as he cited that an average 100 doctors in Sabah quit every year, with 250 having left the profession just last year.

James replied that at the state level, a centre has been established within MoH to receive such complaints.

“And as the State Health Exco, I have been calling all directors or department heads in all the Health Ministry sectors here to look into how we can overcome these problems that are becoming more prevalent in the ministry, especially in government hospitals and health clinics.

“Insyallah, as long as I am the minister and exco, I will do my best to take the appropriate actions,” he said.

Shafie also urged for the findings of a probe into the recent death of a Lahad Datu doctor be disclosed to the State Assembly, but it was not addressed by James.