Abolish recognition of foreign medical schools

 

From Dr Abdul Hamid Abdul Kadir

The Second Schedule in the Medical Act 1971 (Amendment 2012) containing the list of recognised foreign medical schools, is a white elephant and should be frozen or even abolished.

In the late 1990s, the government’s policy was to recognise more foreign medical schools. By the same token, the plan was also to increase the number of public and private medical schools in the country, as well as encourage foreign medical universities to set up campuses here and local colleges to establish twinning programmes with foreign medical schools.

The government agenda, based on the above policy, was to rapidly increase the number of doctors, to compensate for the high cost of establishing medical schools, for the difficulty of obtaining experienced teaching faculty locally and to compensate for the shortage of clinical teaching hospitals.

This policy is responsible for the 365 recognised foreign medical colleges in the 2nd Schedule. There are also now 32 medical schools, with six foreign medical school branch campuses, 21 private medical schools and four accredited foreign universities with medical programmes, in the country.

In brief, there is now a total of 38 medical programmes for a population of 33 million in Malaysia. In comparison, there are 17 medical programmes for a population of 38 million in Canada, 13 for 26 million in Australia and 12 for 70 million in Thailand.

In 1995, there were 9,600 doctors in the country. We now have more than 78,000 doctors, with some 5,000 new medical graduates annually.

The doctor to population ratio is 1:420 in 2021, better than the WHO recommendation of 1:450, as announced by a former health minister.

In summary, we have now achieved much more than the 1990s government agenda on medical education and increasing the number of doctors in the country.

Based on the above facts and figures, the recent public services department (JPA) announcement that 310 students will be allowed to take up medical and dental courses in Australia, United Kingdom and the United States, on government sponsorship (convertible loans), is incomprehensible, besides considering the high cost of such foreign medical education, including tuition fees, accommodation and allowances, over five to six years.

Also, to be kept in mind is the poor affordability in the current economic situation.

The government should instead concentrate on providing facilities for the training of specialists locally, and also address the shortage of medical officers, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak and in some rural areas in the country.

In summary, I would propose for the government to do the following:

• Freeze or abolish the Second Schedule in the Medical Act 1971 (Amendment 2012).
• Stop sending students for medical or dental courses to foreign universities on government scholarship.
• De-recognise the foreign branch campuses of local medical schools.
• Limit the number of students entering local public and private medical schools, in view of the large number of new medical graduates every year.
• Provide specialist training facilities primarily in the country for junior doctors.

- FMT

Dr Abdul Hamid Abdul Kadir is a past president of the Malaysian Medical Association and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.