PETALING JAYA: The amendments to the Medical Act 1971(Act 50), aimed to resolve the issues related to the parallel pathway specialist training programme, is slated to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on July 15.
According to the Dewan Rakyat’s order paper for July 15, there are two Bills in the House’s order of business slotted under the Health Ministry.
These are the Medical (Amendment) Bill 2024 and Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease (Amendment) Bill 2024.
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Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad had also chaired a meeting with the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Health and NGOs regarding the tabling of the bill on July 10.
It is also learnt that a group of 10 academics, NGOs and medical practitioners have sent a memorandum to the PSSC and Minister, explaining why there is no need for an amendment to the Act 50.
They hoped the tabling of the bill would be postponed until a study can be conducted on how doctors who took the parallel pathway programme can be registered into the National Specialist Register without amending the Act.
The proposed amendment to the bill came about after the Malaysian Medical Council’s (MMC) refusal to recognise certain parallel pathway programmes.
It was previously reported that there is a possibility that the Health Minister would be given more clout in conducting and recognising specialist training programmes to deal with the parallel pathway conflict, through the amendment.
The Star in March reported that the shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons left some 1,500 heart and lung disease patients in government hospitals in dire straits.
Some of the above cardiothoracic surgeons will also be retiring soon.
Malaysian graduates who had been sent by the government to study cardiothoracic surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) are unable to practise in Malaysia as their qualifications are not accepted by the MMC.
In response, the MMC said it had never recognised the RCSEd programme.
Four of these graduates have already sued the MMC for refusing to register them with the National Specialist Register (NSR).
