Critical shortage: There are only 14 heart and lung surgeons in public service now and several are retiring in a few years.
Govt set to amend law to recognise more specialists
KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of patients needing government specialist healthcare can expect a reprieve in June with Parliament expected to amend the Medical Act so that specialists and surgeons who had earlier been rejected can be recognised and help perform much-needed operations.
These surgeons are part of the Parallel Pathway Programme (PPP) which has since 2016 allowed the Health Ministry to directly train its medical officers to become specialists in public hospitals, without the need to go back to universities.
However, a differing view held by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), which governs the medical profession and education, has made it hard for such specialists to be recognised.
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Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement on Tuesday that the Cabinet would soon decide on amendments to the Act.
“Given the critical shortage of medical specialists in public hospitals, the ministry intends to ask the Cabinet to expedite the proposed amendments, hopefully in June’s third session of Parliament.
“Concurrently, efforts to bolster specialists training through home-grown master’s programmes will be intensified,” he added.
The issue became public when four Malaysian heart and lung trainee surgeons – the least available specialists in Malaysia – failed to become full surgeons despite passing their examinations under the cardiothoracic surgery PPP.
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They were awarded Fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) but MMC refused to recognise their fellowships.
There are only 14 heart and lung surgeons in public service now and several are retiring in a few years, while there are over 1,500 heart and lung disease patients urgently needing surgery.
Launched in 2016, the Health Ministry’s PPP for heart and lung surgery was its first effort. The ministry has since developed 14 other specialist PPP training systems in the fields of urology, plastic surgery, anaesthesiology, family medicine, as well as obstetrics and gynaecology, to name a few.
These systems make it possible for the ministry to train its own doctors to become specialists, under the guidance of bodies such as the RCSEd instead of waiting for local public and private universities to produce postgraduate specialists.
However, conflicting opinions within MMC appears to be complicating the process.
The matter has also gained international attention when RCSEd president Prof Rowan W Parks, wrote a four-page letter to express concerns to Dzulkefly while Ireland ambassador Orla Tunney and UK deputy high commissioner David Wallace visited the minister.
“This goes against the principle of the partnership and work undertaken at the request of the ministry and places trained excellent surgeons in an untenable, distressing and unfair position,” Prof Parks wrote.
PPP training for government heart and lung surgeons was started by the Health Ministry, Academy of Medicine Malaysia, Malaysian Association for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and RCSEd in 2016.
As of now, 32 candidates have entered the training, four of whom completed it, while another eight have successfully passed their exit examinations, said Prof Parks.
This means there are now 12 newly-qualified Malaysian heart and lung surgeons but they are in a limbo as they remain unrecognised by MMC.
Prof Parks also said RCSEd were willing to meet MMC on its concerns over the PPP training, examination and qualification.
The Medical Act 1971 gives MMC broad powers to manage and decide on all matters concerning medical practitioners.
MMC is headed by the Health director-general and comprises appointed and elected medical professionals from the government, private sector and universities.
Tunney, in a statement to The Star, confirmed meeting with Dzulkefly about the Malaysian-Ireland Training Programme for Family Medicine, which is adopted as PPP training for family medicine specialists in Malaysia.
This is part of partnership between RCS of Ireland and University College Dublin, which has foreign campus status in Penang.
“There are currently 378 Malaysian doctors enrolled, in addition to the 22 who have already graduated,” she said.
Wallace said UK medical institutions have been working in partnership with Malaysian counterparts to equip healthcare providers with the knowledge and expertise to keep pace with the evolving needs of a modern healthcare system.
