Changes to Medical Act 1971 to be tabled in fourth week of Dewan session

PARLIAMENT | A bill on amendments to the Medical Act 1971 (Act 50) is scheduled to be tabled and debated in the fourth week of this Parliament session, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the bill would be tabled to resolve the issue of irregularity in medical specialist training in Malaysia involving the Masters Programme in Medicine and the parallel pathway medical specialist training.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PN-Kuala Langat) during the Ministers’ Question Time.

Yunus wanted to know whether the government would postpone the tabling of the amendments to Act 50 and refer it first to the Special Select Committee on Health.

According to Dzulkefly, 6,933 medical officers have received sponsorship to undergo medical specialist training, with 6,142 undergoing the Masters of Medicine Programme.

The remaining 791 officers are undergoing parallel pathway specialist training, he said, adding that another 2,622 medical officers are also undergoing the parallel pathway training but without sponsorship.

He said the government provided substantial allocations, especially for the Masters programme, which is conducted by local institutions of higher learning.

“The estimated expenditure for a year for the sponsorship of the Masters programme is RM142.4 million, while the sponsorship for the specialist training programme amounted to RM10 million,” he said.

In response to an original question from Yunus, Dzulkefly said medical specialist training in Malaysia consisted of a Masters programme and a parallel pathway medical specialist training programme that local institutions of higher learning conduct.

The clinical training is mostly conducted at the Health Ministry facilities such as hospitals, health clinics, and district health offices, he said.

- Bernama