KUALA LUMPUR: The Medical Act is being amended to harmonise regulations for the Master’s and parallel pathway specialist training programmes.
"I want to emphasise that the main reason for the amendment is to harmonise the irregularity in the regulations," Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said at a briefing after tabling the bill on Monday (July 15).
He said the move would enable the government to address the quality and quantity of specialists produced through both the Master’s programme and the parallel pathway.
He noted that although there are perceptions favouring overseas fellowships, the funds allocation for the Master’s programme versus the parallel pathway programme demonstrates otherwise.
The Health Ministry has spent RM365.4mil between 2019 and 2023 on specialist training for medical officers.
Of this, 96% or about RM352.3mil was spent on the Master’s programme at public universities, while RM13mil was spent on the parallel pathway programme.
On the change in composition for Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) representatives from universities and the public service, Datuk Dr Mohd Azman Yacob, Director of the ministry’s Medical Development Division, said the proposed ratio is appropriate as more than 60% of registered doctors in government service are from the Health Ministry, while the remainder are from teaching hospitals.
He noted that it is crucial for the ministry to have more representatives as the major custodian for health in the country.
Dr Hirman Ismail, Deputy Director of the ministry’s Medical Development Division, said the proposed changes are justified given the ministry’s status as the largest service provider of public healthcare with 159 hospitals in its system. Comparatively, there are only nine teaching hospitals under the Higher Education Ministry.
Earlier, Dzulkefly tabled the Medical (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the Dewan Rakyat for the first reading.
The amendment bill seeks to improve provisions related to the registration of specialists, as well as the recognition of qualification and specialised training.
It has also proposed changes in the composition of members of the MMC.
Among the substantial amendments to Section 14 is the registration of a specialist. Under the proposed amendment, the phrase “recognised training programme in any recognised training institution” will be replaced with "training programmes in any institution determined by the MMC".
