I spoke to a doc friend of mine, and he echoes the sentiments that there is an insufficient number of posts available for housemanship in our country.
If you recall many years back , there was a glut of medical graduates - I remember during my Uni days, when the quota for students applying for courses in medicine was capped to a certain number. That was back in the late 90s early 2000s.
But with the introduction of private institutions which offer medical courses , we saw an increase of medical graduates.
“Over the years, private medical schools have become convenient scapegoats for what is claimed to be an excessive number of medical graduates in this country, when it is self-evident that this is only part of the story,” ~ Prof. Dr Pravdeep Nair.
Obstetrician and Gynaecologist senior consultant Prof Dr Zaleha Abdullah Mahdy pointed out that the country’s doctor to population ratio was alarmingly imbalanced.
“The problem now is that there aren’t enough posts for doctors to fill in the public health service sector; it has not expanded in line with the population’s needs.”
Prof Pradeep suggested ramping up our healthcare expenditure to ease the gridlock in available posts in the medium and long term, as Malaysia currently spends 4.4% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, compared to the recommended 7% by WHO.
“Another solution is to explore the possibility of smart partnerships with private medical centres and medical schools by allowing housemanship training in the private sector.
“This is in place in Australia under the Commonwealth Medical Internships Initiative,” he said.
He said with a moratorium currently placed on the number of medical programmes in the country as well as limits on intakes, the next steps to consider are a phased reduction in the number of overseas schools Malaysia recognises; a scheduled discontinuance of the provisional registration examination for unrecognised graduates; the introduction of a common competencies checklist for all Malaysian medical undergraduates studying locally or abroad; and the introduction of a common exit examination for all Malaysians who are medical graduates intending to work in Malaysia.
While calling for the current contract doctors to be absorbed into permanent positions, Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah said the number of medical colleges in the country must be controlled.
“Cut down student intakes in private medical colleges by at least 70% and by 50% in public institutions until the situation is normalised,” he said.
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Do you think it’s fair that these contract doctors decided to do a boikot when the country needs them most?
1. Hell yeah!
2. No. It’s an opportunist move.
Would love to hear your views.
