PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) says it had never recognised cardiothoracic surgeons from a college in the UK despite the health ministry declaring that these groups of doctors could apply for gazettement as specialists.
However, MMC president Dr Radzi Abu Hassan said they have been made aware of issues related to these cardiothoracic surgeons who graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, which falls under the health ministry’s parallel pathway programme.
Radzi, who is also the health director-general, said a task force has been set up to resolve the issue.
“The task force was set up to come up with a resolution as quickly as possible, which will be communicated to the relevant stakeholders in due course,” Radzi said in a statement today.
On March 19, the ministry said cardiothoracic surgeons qualifying from the college could apply to be gazetted as specialists.
Also eligible for gazettement are family medicine specialists from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the Irish College of General Practitioners, as well as plastic surgeons from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
According to a letter addressed to heads of departments sighted by FMT, the ministry said the special medical committee that met on March 13 had agreed to allow those qualifying as specialists from these colleges to apply for gazettement.
Last Monday, a senator, Dr RA Lingeswaran, asked the health ministry to clarify why the MMC decided to cease recognising the parallel pathway programme for cardiothoracic surgeons involved in twinning programmes with universities in the UK.
Lingeswaran, a former director of the Sungai Bakap Hospital in Penang, said it was “nonsensical” that countries like Singapore and Hong Kong continue to recognise the training provided by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, but Malaysia does not.
Citing the ministry’’s records, he said the specialist course under the parallel programme had been recognised until 2021, before it “suddenly went missing” from the list of recognised postgraduate qualifications in the MMC website and no reason was provided.
Two days ago, senior doctors claimed the MMC rejected the applications of some eight cardiothoracic surgeons and 100 family medicine specialists trained under the PPP for listing on the National Specialist Register (NSR), despite repeated requests from the health ministry to do so.
They warned that the refusal to recognise these specialists will have a serious impact on hospitals under the ministry and that it was going to be catastrophic as there are only 14 cardiothoracic surgeons in seven public hospitals now.
In his statement, Radzi said the MMC was not against any of the parallel pathway programmes nor were they being discontinued.
MMC’s interest is to ensure that the training programmes conducted in the country fulfil the relevant legal and statutory requirements, he said.
“In fact, there are several programmes in the parallel pathway which have been recognised by the MMC, while in the case of those still not yet recognised, the relevant bodies have been informed to take steps to fulfil the relevant legal requirements for accreditation and recognition,” he said. - FMT
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