Poor quality docs: ‘Blame local med schools’

For years now there has been rumblings of poor quality doctors and now the public and academia recognise these graduates to be from Malaysian universities.

KOTA KINABALU: The growing murmurs of concern that local medical graduates lack the ability to perform their expected duties was underscored by Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam’s statement of doctors lacking “clinical competency”.

Subramaniam in explaining complaints against three doctors in Penang having acted in a racist manner had said the situation was instead a case of “poor communications skills and lack of clinical competency” among others.

But the fact remains that hospitals and private clinics in the country are leery of taking in locally trained medical doctors and there is growing consternation among the public about the quality of health service they are receiving.

Some of those with knowledge about the calibre of local medical graduates said there is cause for concern.

A leading educationist here, who declined to be named, alleged that it has become more and more prevalent that some of Malaysian medical schools have admitted students with inferior academic qualification.

Speaking to FMT, he said: “Some colleges seem to have relaxed some academic requirements.

“I for one have come across bumiputera students with inferior qualification in medical schools, including in UMS.

“At the end of examinations, professors had to prop them up by giving remedial classes just to give extra marks so that they don’t get kicked out. It’s an open secret (in the university academia),” he said.

The professor went on to add that in reality, these students were “not cut for medical service” and should be in other programmes where they can thrive.

“These seats should have been given to those better qualified applicants being denied entry,” he added, alluding to the running controversy involving 18,000 students with 4.0 Cummulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) who were denied entries in public universities this year.

Difference obvious

The professor who is a senior lecturer at a university here warned that things were getting out of hand and “the public notice the difference”.

“The public can tell the difference between Malaysian medical graduates and those graduating from reputed foreign medical schools.

“Imagine what kind of doctor they will become if they are of inferior qualities.

“You may hide one or two but what will happen if there are too many out there?” asked the senior lecturer.

Last week MCA urged Putrajaya to grant all STPM top scorers – with a CGPA 4 points but who were denied entry into public universities – scholarships to private varsities.

It was also reported that the intake of Chinese students had fallen from an average of 25% to a low of 19% while Indian students saw their acceptance rate plunge to just 4% this year.