These trainee cardiothoracic surgeons had enrolled in a Health Ministry training system called the Parallel Pathway Programme (PPP) that was started in 2016. There are 32 of them now, with four having completed the training while the others are at various levels of completion.
The four who completed the training had their applications to become full surgeons rejected recently by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC)
In my conversation with the 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 and for this issue has to be properly resolved. I was informed that a taskforce has been ormed to resolve this issue.
While i welcome the formation of such a taskforce to address any confusion and even inconsistency in the matter, it should be done swiftly and those registered and completed the training should be allowed to be registered as full surgeons.
That is why i believe the statement issued by MMC on 25th March 2024 to claim that the Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) was never recognised by MMC is not only inconsistent, but does not send the right message to address this issue amicably.
Fact of the matter, there is already 7 practising surgeon under this programmed that was fully recognised by the National Specialist Register of Malaysia(NSR). On top of that, there are screenshots of the exact program from the NSR own website of the recognition of this training until 2022.
That is why is essential for us to find a way forward on this matter and the main consideration is to meet needs of specialist in our country without jeopardising the qualiting of training amd care of the surgeons. This program itself is recognised and widely accepted in Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei and the United Kingdom.
Actually during the time of Dr Zaliha as the Health Minister, a comprehensive solution was proposed to this matter and i hope all parties through the taskforce wil be able to use that proposal as a starting point to resolve this important matter
We already don’t had enough cardiothoracic surgeons and there is no reason to make it harder to recognize those who were properly trained under a credible training program. We do not want to worsen our brain drain and lose them to another country at the expense of our patients and country.