ePlacement system to be replaced with fairer, merit-based system - Health DG

Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan said that, as such, new application dates for the ePlacement system scheduled for March 25, 26 and 27 are cancelled and postponed to a new date to be announced later.

He said the Ministry of Health (MOH) is expected to reopen applications within six to eight weeks from today after the new system is finalised and its sustainability is tested before being implemented.

"In line with this, we have discussed, not only for the current cohort, but we will also take into account the next batch, which should be in May (self-reporting), we will also move it so that it is fairer," he told a special media conference here today.

He said that although transparency and fairness are improved, the importance of services received would also be of the highest priority because the actual objective of ePlacement was to fill the necessary vacancies in delivering services to the people.

"The MOH will hold engagement sessions with medical officers involved to explain in more detail about this ePlacement system.

"Most importantly, we will ensure that services are not affected. So, for now, they will work wherever they are," he said.

Dr Muhammad Radzi said that through the ePlacement 2.0 system, the MOH will also consider the welfare issues of applicants before approving an application.

"What I am trying to emphasise is that this placement is based on vacancies and existing posts. Currently, Sabah and Sarawak have the most number of vacancies at over 50 per cent.

"So, we have to see how we can ensure that placements can also be done without filling the quota there," he said.

He said the MOH will continue to provide new information and updates regarding the ePlacement 2.0 system, including guidelines and vacancy data from time to time.

"The MOH urges all medical officers to use this system ethically and responsibly to avoid any disruptions that could affect the transparency of the selection process," he said.

Commenting on the incident that occurred on Feb 27, which resulted in the MOH cancelling the placement selection of 2,245 medical officers, Dr Muhammad Radzi said this was due to a serious technical disruption caused by unusual access to the ePlacement system.

According to him, the full access report on that day showed that the ePlacement system received more than 19 million hits, resulting in the system database being inaccessible.

"This was one of the main factors that contributed to the postponement of this placement selection.

"Based on the network traffic log on Feb 27, the MOH found that many users had accessed the server through various devices, including using inappropriate methods," he said.

As a result of this technical disruption, he said application statistics also showed that more placements were approved compared to the original quota.

He said that 50 per cent of the existing vacancies were in Sabah and Sarawak, but based on the receipt of applications on Feb 27, less than one per cent of vacancies in Sabah and Sarawak were filled.

This resulted in the data obtained being unusable, he said.

However, Muhammad Radzi stressed that the technical disruption had nothing to do with cybersecurity incidents.

"As for cybersecurity, the answer is no, because the National Digital Department and the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) were involved in and it was found that no intrusion or cyber security incident had occurred and the matter had been reported to CyberSecurity Malaysia," he said.