KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet will discuss the cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) at next meeting, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"It will be discussed this Wednesday (May 29) during the Cabinet meeting," said Anwar briefly during a press conference after attending an event at Berjaya Times Square on Sunday (May 26).
The training of specialists through the parallel pathway is a government initiative to increase the number of specialists in Malaysia, especially in public hospitals, set up by the Health Ministry in 2014 after receiving approval from the then-health minister and relevant authorities.
The training and qualifications were approved and recognised by the government and are quality-assured by the Royal Colleges.
Earlier this month, four graduates from the parallel pathway training with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in cardiothoracic surgery took legal action against the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) for refusing to register them on the National Specialist Register (NSR).
This was the third known lawsuit against the MMC's rejection of NSR specialist registration applications, in which judicial review applications were filed to legally challenge the independent regulatory body's recent non-recognition of certain specialist training programmes.
The other two lawsuits were filed by a neurosurgeon with FRCS Ireland in neurosurgery and six pathology graduates in medical genetics from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), a local university.
The High Court has granted leave for both judicial review applications.
