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.
When contacted Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr David KL Quek said the association has been privy to some of the amendments to the Medical Act 1971 and felt it was timely for changes to be made to it.
“The association supports the move as graduates from medical schools around the world will have an opportunity to return by sitting for the licensing exam that will scrutinise their theoretical and clinical skills before they are allowed to practise,” he said.
It is indeed a daunting task for the government to spend money travelling the world to evaluate the universities and this is an alternative to that, he said.
Local public university graduates are however exempted from this as they are under the government’s direct jurisdiction and monitoring, but the number of private medical schools sprouting in the country has to be closely looked at.
Graduates from these institutions too must be subject to the licensing examination to uphold standards in the medical profession, Quek said adding that it will take at least six to eight years to implement the licensing exam.
On the moratorium on intake at private medical institutions in the country as announced by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Quek said this too has to do with ensuring that the country has quality medical practitioners.
“There are about 42 medical programmes in the country, but the MMA and senior doctors are concerned if there are enough teachers for these programmes,” he said.
Quek said: "Even countries like the United Kingdom, which has a long tradition of medical practice, has 180,000 doctors and 28 medical schools serving the 64 million population. Their institutions have senior teachers and instructors."
"Here there are about 33,000 doctors in Malaysia serving the 28 million population, most are in private practice, so do we have enough teachers for the 42 medical programmes?" he questioned.
"Local public universities which have strong, skilled teaching staff and equipment in teaching hospitals only take in about 200 students a year, but some of these private institutions take in up to 400 students per year," Quek said, adding that some even take in students for foundation courses after their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.
"We have asked the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) to come down on these colleges and ensure that they don’t over recruit students. We can’t let the quality of medical students be compromised by profiteering because the ones who will suffer in the end are the public and patients”, Quek said.
Original link :HERE
P/S: If the licensing examination is clean and transparent, it's a good move to get rid of low competency medical graduates as healthcare is something very serious to deal with.
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