Medicine: Amendment to allow preferred varsity

By Husna Yusop, The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR (March 10, 2011): The Medical Act 1971 will be amended to abolish the list of 375 recognised universities in 34 countries so that students can pursue medical studies in their preferred varsities.

However, in order to do this, they must first obtain the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Higher Education Ministry and once they have graduated, they must sit for the Licensing Examination.

“Once they have passed (the Licensing Examination), only then they are qualified to be registered with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and practise in Malaysia.

“This is to ensure that they can function as a doctor with quality and credibility,” Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told Dewan Rakyat today.

Liow said this in reply to a supplementary question from Dr Tan Seng Giaw (DAP-Kepong) who asked how the government ensures that all doctors, local and foreign graduates, could give quality service.

The amendment to the law is expected to be tabled in Parliament during its June session this year.
 
Liow said at the moment, there is a list of universities whose medical courses are recognised by the government that has been included in the Second Table of the act.

“But, with the rising cost of things, it is quite difficult to monitor the quality of medical studies offered by foreign universities on a periodical basis.

“This is due to the geographical factor, logistic and high cost needed to send our panel of examiners to these countries,” he said.

He said the decision was taken by the Medical Studies Recognition Technical Committee, which has previously formulated the Accreditation Guidelines of Medical Programmes, and other relevant agencies.

The committee comprised representatives of the ministry, MMC, Public Services Department, Malaysian Qualification Agency and Higher Education Ministry.

Liow also said another step to check the quality of doctors is by introducing a moratorium on new medical programmes in local universities.

Through this moratorium, there will be a freeze on new medical programmes in local universities for a certain period to avoid a surplus of medical graduates.

“We have a problem of teaching staff and training in hospitals. Now, we have 41 hospitals which accept housemen to do practical training.

“If we were to have more universities (offering new medical programmes), we will not have enough hospital to train the housemen,” he said.

The moratorium has been set up by the Higher Education Ministry with the input from relevant government agencies and was now in the process of improvement before it is approved for tabling in Parliament.

“The moratorium will take effect once it is approved by the Parliament later,” he added.

Liow said the number of medical graduates registered with the MMC has increased from 2,527 in 2008 to 3,150 in 2009 and 3,257 in 2010.

“The total number of doctors registered with the MMC as of last year is 28,904,” he said.

To another supplementary question from Datuk Lilah Yasin (BN-Jempol), Liow said the ministry does monitor the schedule of housemen in hospitals to ensure they are not overworked.

Among others, he said, housemen are not allowed to be on-call fo more than three times in a week.
KUALA LUMPUR (March 10, 2011): The Medical Act 1971 will be amended to abolish the list of 375 recognised universities in 34 countries so that students can pursue medical studies in their preferred varsities.

However, in order to do this, they must first obtain the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Higher Education Ministry and once they have graduated, they must sit for the Licensing Examination.

“Once they have passed (the Licensing Examination), only then they are qualified to be registered with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and practise in Malaysia.

“This is to ensure that they can function as a doctor with quality and credibility,” Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told Dewan Rakyat today.

Liow said this in reply to a supplementary question from Dr Tan Seng Giaw (DAP-Kepong) who asked how the government ensures that all doctors, local and foreign graduates, could give quality service.

The amendment to the law is expected to be tabled in Parliament during its June session this year.
 
Liow said at the moment, there is a list of universities whose medical courses are recognised by the government that has been included in the Second Table of the act.

“But, with the rising cost of things, it is quite difficult to monitor the quality of medical studies offered by foreign universities on a periodical basis.

“This is due to the geographical factor, logistic and high cost needed to send our panel of examiners to these countries,” he said.

He said the decision was taken by the Medical Studies Recognition Technical Committee, which has previously formulated the Accreditation Guidelines of Medical Programmes, and other relevant agencies.

The committee comprised representatives of the ministry, MMC, Public Services Department, Malaysian Qualification Agency and Higher Education Ministry.

Liow also said another step to check the quality of doctors is by introducing a moratorium on new medical programmes in local universities.

Through this moratorium, there will be a freeze on new medical programmes in local universities for a certain period to avoid a surplus of medical graduates.

“We have a problem of teaching staff and training in hospitals. Now, we have 41 hospitals which accept housemen to do practical training.

“If we were to have more universities (offering new medical programmes), we will not have enough hospital to train the housemen,” he said.

The moratorium has been set up by the Higher Education Ministry with the input from relevant government agencies and was now in the process of improvement before it is approved for tabling in Parliament.

“The moratorium will take effect once it is approved by the Parliament later,” he added.

Liow said the number of medical graduates registered with the MMC has increased from 2,527 in 2008 to 3,150 in 2009 and 3,257 in 2010.

“The total number of doctors registered with the MMC as of last year is 28,904,” he said.

To another supplementary question from Datuk Lilah Yasin (BN-Jempol), Liow said the ministry does monitor the schedule of housemen in hospitals to ensure they are not overworked.

Among others, he said, housemen are not allowed to be on-call fo more than three times in a week.