Friday June 3, 2011

Young docs urged to specialise

MALACCA: Doctors who have completed their housemanship have been urged to pursue specialist studies to overcome the shortage of specialists in government hospitals nationwide.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman said this was because there were only 43 public hospitals with specialists out of 136 hospitals in the coun-try.

“Although the number of doctors pursuing specialist studies doubled from about 400 to 800 last year, Malaysia is still lacking in specialist doctors,” he said after launching the Third Malaysian International Medical Students Conference at the Malacca Manipal Medical College here yesterday.

Although the Government had hired more foreign doctors and was asking Malaysian doctors who migrated overseas to return, the number of available specialists was still discouraging, he said.

Dr Hasan said housemen who were posted to the six different medical fields during their two-year stint should explore the specialist field that they preferred.

“Doctors can enjoy many benefits, including fully-paid study leave, if they want to pursue specialist studies,” he said.

He also said 3,277 housemen had reported for duty last year while 3,058 reported in 2009 and 2,319 in 2008.

Dr Hassan said the ministry was targeting to have 4,500 medical graduates this year.

Meanwhile, Dr Hasan said there were no reports on the detection of E.coli bacterial infection.

He advised the people to practise precaution and observe personal hygiene when preparing food, especially vegetables.

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