By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 26: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has called for the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and Ministry of Health (MoH) to find a solution to the confusion over the recognition and registration of cardiothoracic surgeons who graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh under a parallel pathway programme (PPP).
In a statement, Dr Yii said there are already not enough cardiothoracic surgeons in the country and that making it harder to recognise those properly trained under a credible training programme might worsen the country’s brain drain.
Dr Yii, who is also the Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (Dapsy) chief, said that the programme, which started in 2016, had produced 32 surgeons—four of whom have completed training.
However, he said that the four who completed the training had their applications to become full surgeons rejected recently by the MMC.
“In my conversation with Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and Director-General (DG) of Health Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi in Parliament recently, I expressed my concern on the matter.
“I was informed that a task force has been formed to resolve this issue,” he said.
Dr Yii elaborated that while he welcomed the formation of such a task force, he said it should be done swiftly, and those who have completed the training should be allowed to be registered as full surgeons.
He added that he believed the statement issued by MMC on March 25 claiming that MMC never recognised the Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is inconsistent and does not send the right message to address the issue amicably.
He added that there are already seven practising surgeons under the programme fully recognised by the National Specialist Register of Malaysia (NSR), along with screenshots of the exact programme from the NSR’s website of the recognition of this training until 2022.
“This programme itself is recognised and widely accepted in Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei, and the United Kingdom (UK),” he said.
Dr Yii also recalled that during Dr Zaliha Mustafa’s time as the health minister, a solution was proposed on this matter, which he hoped could be used as a starting point. — DayakDaily
