PETALING JAYA: New medical school graduates will now be almost guaranteed a place to serve their two-year compulsory housemanship at a government hospital.
However, their future beyond that is still uncertain.
The government has raised the intake of graduates for the housemanship programme to 6,000 from 3,000 previously.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr N. Ganabaskaran said this was achieved through “lengthy negotiations”.
“As a result, we now have enough positions to go around,” he told theSun yesterday.
He explained that the intake will be done over a period of six months, with 1,000 new positions for housemen opening up each month.
“This will reduce the waiting time for graduate doctors to start on their housemanship programme,” he said.
The country sees approximately 5,000 new medical graduates each year, and a large majority of them have had to wait, sometimes years, to start serving their housemanship, a final stepping stone to becoming a doctor.
Ganabaskaran said the programme was implemented early this year, and there have already been three intakes, but the process has been interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A fourth intake is expected next month.
However, he said there are limited positions available to young doctors once they finish the two-year housemanship.
To help new medical graduates get jobs, MMA is actively working on efforts to open new career paths outside of clinical medicine.
“Medicine is a lifetime of service, not a fairy tale, and there is zero job security,” he stressed.
He said there are other opportunities for medical graduates in research, pharmaceuticals and even administrative positions.
Ganabaskaran said the Health Ministry is also looking to increase the number of house officer training hospitals “but this will take time”.
This, he added, is part of a process to improve training opportunities for fresh graduates.
He said raising the intake for housemen is just a short-term solution.
He said one way is to reduce the intake for medical schools, but this has to be worked out by both the Education and Health Ministries.
“The government has taken the first step by not allowing new medical schools in the country. We just need to extend this moratorium for at least another 10 years.
“We are also working with the relevant parties to reduce the intake of undergraduates in medical schools. Only those who are most dedicated should apply,” he added.
In addition, he said the government should consider reducing the number of overseas institutions whose medical certification is recognised in the country, from 400 currently to about 100 of the world’s top medical schools.
He said the country needs only about 2,500 new medical graduates per year to maintain the healthcare system in its current state.
“This is more sustainable than the 5,000 graduates from local and overseas medical schools. We already have more doctors per capita than most developed countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia.”
He said that ideally, Malaysia should have only 2,500 to 3,000 medical graduates per year.
“We can also merge and consolidate local medical schools, akin to the bank mergers in the 1990s,” he added.
Ganabaskaran also called for a common licensing examination for all medical graduates before they are allowed to register with the Malaysian Medical Council. “This will ensure that medical practitioners in Malaysia continue to maintain a high professional standard.”
He also proposed that Malaysia markets its medical schools to other countries.
“Our standards are high. We should encourage foreign students to come and train in our country,” he said.
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