A number of fresh medical graduates have claimed they had already received their housemanship placements before they found out they were not allowed to practise medicine in the country due to a gazetting issue related to their university.
A group of 123 medical graduates from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) said they had successfully registered with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and applied for the Public Services Commission around December 2020 and January 2021.
They claimed they had also received offer letters for their housemanship placements, which required them to report for duty starting June 28, 2021.
“(We) successfully got our placements at hospitals around Malaysia. Our journey continued with us having to deal with official documents, health check-ups, searching for accommodation and even buying flight tickets to Sabah and Sarawak.
“We spent thousands of ringgits and all our efforts to resolve all these complicated processes before we were told to report for duty on June 28, 2021 as included in our offer letters,” the graduates said in a statement today.
However, on June 15, they found out their names were not listed on the list of graduates reporting for duty on June 28.
They then contacted the MMC who told them their alma mater IIUM was involved with a gazetting issue and thus, any medical graduates from the university would not be recognised by the MMC until the issue was resolved.
The gazetting issue refers to the issue of differences in the name of the medical degree or the name of the university gazetted under the Second Schedule of the Medical Act 1971.
However, the graduates alleged that MMC had released a notice on their website on May 7 which listed the 32 universities involved in this gazetting issue, and that IIUM was not on that list.
“We wonder if there is any black and white about IIUM being involved with this (gazetting) issue, seeing as in the May 7 notice, IIUM’s name was not listed.
“There wasn’t a single email or phone call informing us of this issue.
“We have also liaised with IIUM’s medical faculty’s dean about this issue and they also had not received any notice from MMC and this came as a shock to them,” the graduates said, adding that they had lodged official complaints via email to MMC and the Health Ministry.
They have even tried going to the MMC office to get further details about this issue but the office is closed during the movement control order (MCO).
One must be registered with the MMC in order to practise medicine in Malaysia.
The graduates feel they have been caught in an unfair situation as not only have they received their offer letters, they have also spent thousands of ringgits preparing for their placements, especially those flying to Sabah and Sarawak.
“Is MMC willing to take responsibility for the losses we have to bear due to this issue? Especially when we have already received our offer letters. Does this not already confirm our placements?” they said.
They also claim that there are six other universities whose graduates are facing similar issues as them, with a total of 197 graduates affected.
Malaysiakini has reached out to MMC on this matter and is awaiting their response. - Mkini
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