The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia (KJRI) in Johor Bahru has proposed a form of strategic cooperation with local hospitals to enable nurses from the republic to serve in Malaysia, following the increasingly critical shortage of healthcare workers.
Consul General of Indonesia, Sigit S. Widiyanto said the proposal was a mutually beneficial move given that more than 70% of international patients receiving treatment in Malaysia are Indonesian citizens.
He said that state-level initiatives had been initiated in Johor, including the process of selecting candidate nurses before being brought to the approval stage of the Ministry of Health Malaysia (KKM), the Malaysian Nursing Board and related agencies.
The presence of nurses from Indonesia is expected to help reduce the burden on local health workers and increase the confidence of Indonesian patients in treatment in Malaysia due to cultural and language similarities.
Earlier, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad admitted that the country was experiencing a nurse shortage crisis, when a nurse was now forced to manage between 10 to 14 patients in one shift, which exceeded the ideal ratio of 1:6 or a maximum of 1:8.
This crisis has also been influenced by a wave of workforce transition when a total of 2,141 nurses were reported to have left the public sector between 2020 and 2024 to join the private sector.
Commenting further, Sigit informed that Indonesia has a surplus of qualified nurses who are now also serving in developed countries such as Singapore, Japan, Australia and Germany, thus proving their ability to adapt to the health systems of various countries.
In addition, he also proposed a 'sandwich' program with a health institution in Tanjung Pinang, Riau Islands, where nursing students from Indonesia will continue their studies for six months in Malaysia before starting full-time service.
However, this proposal raises questions among the local community — is the Ministry of Health willing to open up space for foreign nurses when many local nursing graduates are still unemployed or have not yet obtained placements?
