PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry is in the midst of finalising the proposal to revert the housemanship training period to one year.
In a statement on Monday (Feb 24), Health Director-General Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan said the house officers training was increased to two years in 2008 due to an increase in medical graduates at that time.
However, in line with current developments including the number of specialists and specialist hospitals as well as improvements made to the training process, the ministry is now studying the proposal to reduce the housemanship to one year.
This confirms The Star’s report on Feb 21, that the Medical Advisory and Action Council (MAAC) had proposed to the Health Ministry to reduce the housemanship period to one year.
“Based on the overall evaluation of the existing training system and latest developments in Malaysia’s healthcare services, the one year training is expected to be more efficient but on condition that the quality of training is improved.
"The proposal is also in line with the practice in other countries,” said Dr Muhammad Radzi.
The ministry has also engaged various stakeholders including the Malaysian Medical Council, Academy of Medicine Malaysia, higher education institutions and experts, he said.
He added that this proposal intends to address issues such as the high workload and the lack of recognition for house officers.
“The main focus is to increase their clinical exposure and to motivate them. If this proposal is implemented, in the first year of training as house officers they will be posted in the surgery, general medicine and obstetrics and gynaecology departments,” he said.
In the second year of training, these doctors will serve as junior medical officers. They would then carry out their rotations at the orthopaedics, paediatrics and emergency medicine departments.
The training for anaesthesiology, psychiatric and family medicine would be integrated into the training process at the relevant departments to ensure efficiency.
“The Health Ministry will ensure that house officers achieve the necessary level of competencies before transitioning to their role as junior medical officers.
"Therefore, supervisors at training centres will play a role in training, monitoring and evaluating their performance,” he said.
“If their performance is unsatisfactory, the training period would be extended to ensure their quality and competency,” he said.
Dr Muhammad Radzi said the proposal to reduce the housemanship period was not made to overcome the shortage of manpower but instead it aimed to increase productivity through efficiency.
The ministry would share further details once there is a development in the matter.
