Alarming issue regarding our bread & butter Media statement by Teresa Kok ------------------------------ On August 18, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Datuk Dr N.K.S. Tharmaseelan said that the future remains uncertain for aspiring doctors unless more training hospitals are opened. Come next year, some 5,000 doctors are expected to be jobless. These are very alarming remarks which warrant serious and concrete response from the government. But so far the Health Minister Datuk S Subramaniam has not given good and satisfactory response which really addresses the real issue raised. According to media report dated August 18, while commenting on ‘too many doctors’ in Malaysia, the Minister said the ministry would continue to create more government posts for doctors and other health care professionals, on a regular basis. He said at present, there were 36, 607 doctors , including specialists , with a doctor to population ratio of 1:791 and by the year 2020 based on estimated population of 34 million, 85,000 doctors would be needed to attain the standard ratio of 1: 400. He further said, previously posts in the government were not filled due to insufficient medical graduates but now almost 85 percent of the posts have been filled with around 3,700 intakes every year. Subramanian’s reply has not allayed the worries of many parents and prospective medical students as he has not answered the real point—do we have enough teaching hospitals to train the large number of doctors as pointed out by Datuk Dr Tharmaseelan? According to media report, Tharmaseelan has further said the following:- “Some 5,000 doctors are graduating yearly but where are they going to do their housemanship and compulsory training? Currently in government hospitals, there are some 60 doctors in one unit so how are they going to learn? According to the 2011 Health Ministry Annual Report, 21,765 out of 28,309 vacancies for medical officers have been filled. “This means that by now, the 6,544 available posts would have almost been filled. Where will the fresh graduates go next year?”" Can the Health Minister deny the implementation of shift system for housemen is to address the housemen congestion problem and it is also merely an ad hoc solution to postpone the doctors surplus problem? But how long can the government postpone the problem? Malaysian Medical Council member and senior medical practitioner Dr Milton Lum has also on the same day pointed out that there are currently almost 9,000 housemen nationwide. “In one to two years’ time, government hospitals won’t be able to take in housemen anymore so medical graduates will have to leave the country to find work because they can’t get registered here,” he said. It may seem unbelievable for the general public that doctors can go jobless. But Datuk Tharmaseelan and Dr Milton have both spoken with real facts and figures. So the government cannot go on to explain that with increase in population, the nation needs more doctors and therefore there will not be any surplus of doctors. There is no point talking about the 1: 400 ratio or need for 85,000 doctors in 2020 when the main question is whether there will be enough hospitals. Even right now, there is a lack of sufficient hospitals to cater for the doctors being produced, as pointed out by Datuk Tharmaseelan and Dr Milton. So Health Minister Datuk Subramaniam must answer the real point and publicly explain what are the government’s short and long term pans to address the question of surplus of doctors.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:36:52 +0000
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