With MMC’s denial that it has directed a reduction in the intake of medical students, Kamalanathan cannot keep quiet or he will be called a liar for making a false claim

On Aug 19, New Straits Times reported that Deputy Education Minister II P. Kamalanathan said that 418 places were available for a medical degree in public varsities this year, compared with 699 places last year, based on the recommendation of the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC).

He said that MMC requested for a lower intake to prevent the oversupply of doctors as there were housemen in hospitals with no work to do.

Kamalanathan said 1,163 students who achieved a 4.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) from matriculation and straight As for the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) applied for the 2014/2015 session.

However, there days ago, MMC has issued a statement to rebut Kamalanathan’s claim that it has issued directive to reduce intake of medical students.

The MMC statement issued by its President Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said:-

The Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) would like to clarify that all accredited medical schools in Malaysia have been given approval for a specific quota in terms of number of students to be enrolled every academic year. The quota is determined by their teaching capacity, and takes into consideration among others the lecturers to student ratio, and also the students to hospital beds ratio to ensure that students get adequate clinical teaching.

For the public medical schools in Malaysia the total size of the approved quota is 1,550 student intake annually, and is distributed among the 11 Public Universities with 13 medical programs (UM 180, UKM 200, USM 300, UPM 100, UNIMAS 120, UIA 140, UMS 90, UiTM 230, USIM 80, UNIZA 60, UPNM 50). The approved quota was decided based on their ability to comply with the accreditation guidelines for medical programmes.

MMC has never given any directive to any of the public universities/public medical schools to reduce their intake of the medical students. They are free to enroll the students in accordance with the quota approved for them, provided they are in compliance with the accreditation guidelines mentioned above, especially in relation to the students lecturer ratio and also the ratio of students to the hospital beds.

The issue of oversupply does not arise as long as the public universities comply with the approved quotas and the accreditation requirements, which is important in ensuring the quality of medical graduates so that patients are provided safe and quality care.

So there are now two key questions here, firstly why did Kamalanathan say that it was MMC that directed that reduction be made and secondly why only 418 places were were allocated well below the approved quota?

With MMC’s denial that it has directed a reduction in the intake of medical students, Kamalanathan cannot keep quiet or he will be called a liar for making a false claim.

I have, based on statistics available, said that reductions have actually been happening since 2011. The statistics are as follows:

Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin and Health Minister Datuk Seri Subramaniam too must not keep silent and should reveal the truth as to why reductions have been taking place as well as explain why if any reduction is necessary, it has not started with the private medical schools.