PETALING JAYA: Amendments to the Medical Act 1971 (Act 50), aimed at resolving issues related to the parallel pathway specialist training programme, are slated to be tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat tomorrow.
According to Dewan Rakyat’s order paper for July 15, there are two Bills in the House’s order of business slotted under the Health Ministry.
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These are the Medical (Amendment) Bill 2024 and the Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease (Amendment) Bill 2024.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad had also chaired a meeting with the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Health and NGOs regarding the tabling of the Bill on July 10.
The proposed amendments came about after the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) refused to recognise certain parallel pathway programmes aimed at training cardiothoracic surgeons, even as government hospitals face a dire shortage of such specialists.
It was previously reported that the amendment could give the Health Minister more clout in conducting and recognising specialist training programmes to deal with the parallel pathway conflict.
The Star in March reported that the shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons left some 1,500 heart and lung disease patients in government hospitals in dire straits. This is in addition to the fact that some of the government’s current cardiothoracic surgeons will soon retire.
Malaysian graduates who had been sent by the government to study cardiothoracic surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) are unable to practise in Malaysia as their qualifications are not accepted by the MMC.
In response, the MMC said it had never recognised the RCSEd programme.
Four of these graduates have already sued the MMC for refusing to register them with the National Specialist Register (NSR).
