THE Covid-19 pandemic is a global wake-up call for society that healthcare must be bolstered, with expenditure on the prevention of diseases a priority investment for both individuals and governments.
Although Malaysia has a relatively good healthcare structure, we need more doctors and other healthcare professionals.
This is because there is a maldistribution of healthcare professionals in the country with most doctors practicing in the cities, creating accessibility issues in rural areas.
Why fresh blood is needed
According to Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM) Faculty of Medicine dean Prof Dr Jayakumar Gurusamy, “The opportunity for young doctors is immense with a range of specialties ranging from neurosurgeons to oncologists.
“The Government recently announced Malaysia requires an additional 28,000 specialists in various medical disciplines by 2030 to reduce the waiting time at government hospitals.”
Prof Dr Jayakumar, who is also a professor of community medicine, added, “The country is moving towards an ageing nation where sickness and non-communicable diseases will increase.
“More public health medicine specialists to rehabilitation physicians are needed to tackle this problem. Globalisation allows young doctors to venture to work abroad and enrich their work experience.”
The MUCM MBBS
The name Manipal has resonated with the Malaysian healthcare system for the past 68 years, with thousands of medical doctors graduating from Manipal in India and over the last 24 years from Manipal University College Malaysia (formerly known Melaka-Manipal Medical College) in Melaka.
The contribution from the graduates to the healthcare services has been invaluable, both within the country and outside its borders, with many others creating a mark in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
The MBBS curriculum is a blend of traditional and contemporary teaching and learning modalities like cadaveric dissection to virtual 3D dissections in anatomy.
The shadow housemanship embedded within the curriculum at the final semester immerses medical students in a world of almost real-life working conditions. It paves the way for the graduates to blend with ease into the clinical working life at the hospitals.
Is medicine for me?
A career in Medicine, where passion meets compassion, remains a worthwhile undertaking. Working opportunities for doctors within the country and globally have withstood economic downturns, pandemics, disasters and poverty.
On the contrary, doctors are needed more during these periods to overcome the after-effects of difficult times where sicknesses increase.
Unlike in previous decades, medicine is today a passport to many clinical, as well non-clinical routes like physician-researchers, medical physiologists, microbiologists, healthcare leaders like hospital directors, as well as leaders in medical-related organisations.
For more information on the programme, call 1700 811 662 or log on to www.manipal.edu.my.
