Ab Rahman et al. Human Resources for Health (2019) 17:82 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0410-4 RESEARCH Open Access Job satisfaction of public and private primary care physicians in Malaysia: analysis of findings from QUALICO-PC N. Ab Rahman1*, M. Husin1, K. Dahian2, K. Mohamad Noh3, R. Atun4 and S. Sivasampu1 Abstract Background: Job satisfaction of doctors is an important factor determining quality and performance of a health system. The aim of this study was to assess job satisfaction among doctors of the public and private primary care clinics in Malaysia and evaluate factors that could influence the job satisfaction rating. Methods: This study was part of the Quality and Costs of Primary Care (QUALICOPC) Malaysia, a cross-sectional survey conducted between August 2015 and June 2016 in Malaysia. Data was collected from doctors recruited from public and private primary care clinics using a standardised questionnaire. Comparisons were made between doctors working in public and private clinics, and logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors influencing the likelihood of job satisfaction outcomes. Results: A total of 221 doctors from the public and 239 doctors from the private sector completed the questionnaire. Compared to private doctors, a higher proportion of public doctors felt they were being overloaded with the administrative task (59.7% vs 36.0%) and part of the work does not make sense (33.9% vs 18.4%). Only 62.9% of public doctors felt that there was a good balance between effort and reward while a significantly higher proportion (85.8%) of private doctors reported the same. Over 80% of doctors in both sectors indicated continued interest in their job and agreed that being a doctor is a well-respected job. Logistic regression analysis showed public-private sector and practice location (urban-rural) to be significantly associated with work satisfaction outcomes. Conclusion: A higher proportion of public doctors experienced pressure from administrative tasks and felt that part of their work does not make sense than their colleague in the private sector. At the same time, the majority of private doctors reported positive outcome on effort-and-reward balance compared to only one third of public doctors. The finding suggests that decreasing administrative workload and enhancing work-based supports might be the most effective ways to improve job satisfaction of primary care doctors because these are some of the main aspects of the job that doctors, especially in public clinics, are most unhappy with. Keywords: Job satisfaction, Public sector, Private sector, Primary care, Health professionals * Correspondence: [email protected] 1Institute for Clinical Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Ministry of Health Malaysia, Block B4, No. 1, Jalan Setia Murni U13/52, 40170 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Ab Rahman et al. Human Resources for Health (2019) 17:82 Page 2 of 10 Introduction public sector [9, 12]. The difference in the public and A strong primary health care system is widely regarded private sector may create potential disparities in job- as one of the best approaches for the delivery of cost- related attitudes among physicians. For instance, in a effective health services to achieve and maintain univer- study by Aidalina et al., dissatisfaction with the work sal health coverage (UHC) [1]. Attaining the main goal condition was cited as the main reason for physicians to of offering the highest quality of health services and best migrate from the public to the private sector [13]. health outcomes possible depends on the availability and Assessment of physicians’ job satisfaction is one of the accessibility of health workers as well as committed and approaches to look into existing healthcare situation and well-performing workforce [2]. It has become increas- possible problems. Physicians’ well-being and job satis- ingly important given the current shift in the global dis- faction impact health service quality; thus, it is regarded ease burden, i.e. the rapid rise of non-communicable as one of the outcomes of healthcare and has become an diseases (NCDs), persistent problems with communic- increasingly important subject during the course of able diseases, and an ageing population that will bring health reforms [14, 15]. Job satisfaction of physician im- an influx of people into the primary care system [3, 4]. pacts productivity, aspects of quality of care, and patient This creates an increase in demand for primary care ser- satisfaction with care [16, 17]. More importantly, job sat- vices while the issue of workforce shortage prevails. isfaction has been identified as an important determin- Therefore, keeping the primary care physicians satisfied ant of physician turnover and retention [18–20]. Several and motivated is essential as it helps the entire health local studies on job satisfaction of healthcare workers system to work smoothly. mostly focused on the public sector [21–23] while only a Malaysia, an upper middle-income country, has a di- few specifically address primary care doctors [23, 24]. chotomous healthcare system spread between the Although higher job satisfaction level among physicians government-subsidised public sector and fee-for-service who work in the private sector compared to their coun- private sector. The public tier delivers comprehensive, terpart in the public sector has been reported in other affordable care to the citizen through a system of countries [25, 26], it is not known whether such differ- community-based primary healthcare facilities linked to ences exist among primary care physicians in Malaysia. secondary and tertiary hospitals offering more specia- Survey results in other countries showed that physicians lised in- and outpatient services. The private tier paral- were dissatisfied with aspects related to working hours lels in many ways the public system, tending to service and administrative tasks while rewards, recognition, and wealthier elements of the society who can afford the remuneration also influenced their work satisfaction out-of-pocket payment of higher fees [5, 6]. Although [27–29]. Prior studies also revealed that physicians’ job tangible accessibility is guaranteed through the mixed satisfaction is health system dependent while a number public-private health system, the effective workforce in of factors such as individual, organisational, and work the Malaysian healthcare is considered low compared to factors may also be associated with the degree of job sat- its healthcare needs and human asset [7, 8]. Currently, isfaction [16, 30–32]. However, most of these studies Malaysia has 1.5 doctors per 1000 population; although have come out of high-income country settings, and it higher than neighbouring Southeast Asian countries like might not be applicable to low- and middle-income Thailand (0.8) and Vietnam (0.8), the number is lower country health care systems because the nature of the than the levels observed in its closest neighbour systems is different. By understanding issues faced by Singapore (2.3) and countries such as Japan (2.4) and primary care physicians, it is hoped that (a) a process Australia (3.5) [7]. For primary care, per capita density can be developed to address them and (b) the middle- of primary care physicians in Malaysia is 1.5 per 1000 income country lessons of Malaysia may support population in the urban areas and 1.1 per 1000 popula- regional neighbours and other LMIC with similar issues. tion in the rural areas [9]. Besides, there is considerable The present study aims to address the abovementioned variation across public and private sectors in terms of gaps. Malaysia’s participation in the large international organisation, financing, governance, delivery of services, Quality and Costs of Primary Care (QUALICOPC) study and patient and provider profiles [10, 11]. Private clinics during the period 2015–2016 reflects on the current state are concentrated in urban, affluent areas and cities of primary care in Malaysia which also allows for compari- whereas public clinics’ coverage is wider including those son with other countries [4]. Within the QUALICOPC in rural areas. Although there are five times more pri- framework, we had the opportunity to measure job satis- mary care clinics in the private sector compared to the faction of primary care physicians in Malaysia according public sector, higher patient visits were recorded in pub- to their perceptions of several work aspects. This could lic clinics [9], resulting in an overload of patients and also reflect challenges faced by primary care physicians in clogging up the clinics’ capacity. Retention of primary Malaysia that have not been formally investigated. In this care physicians remains a challenge, particularly for the study, we aimed to compare levels of job satisfaction Ab Rahman et al. 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