Heart and lung patients in dire straits

GEORGE TOWN: It’s a catch-22 situation: There are about 1,500 heart and lung disease patients in government hospitals who are in varying conditions, yet they face a wait of up to a year for life-saving surgery due to a lack of qualified surgeons.

There are just 14 cardiothoracic government surgeons nationally, operating almost every day to give the patients a new lease of life.

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A conflict in the Malaysian medical fraternity had been hindering new surgeons from joining the government service to do these surgeries.

To break the deadlock, the government has to invoke a decades-old form of recognition for surgeons – using parliamentary gazettes in a process that would take six months – to bring them on board.“We are in trouble. Out of our 14 cardiothoracic surgeons in government hospitals, several are retiring in a few years, including me.

“And many of the 1,500 patients urgently need heart or lung surgery soon,” said the Health Ministry’s chief of cardiothoracic surgical services Datuk Dr Basheer Ahamed Abd Kareem.Dr Basheer is also the president of the Malaysian Association for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (MATCVS) and the head of department in Penang hospital’s cardiothoracic surgery.

“Heart surgeries in private hospitals can cost RM80,000 or more. In government hospitals, patients pay about RM500 for it.

“So you can imagine how many Malaysians need government heart surgery.

“Our government’s dedication to subsidised public healthcare is beyond question and among the best in the world.

“But we need more surgeons,” he told The Star.The Health Ministry, since 2016, has made a groundbreaking effort to increase the number of cardiothoracic surgeons in government hospitals, by creating a training system in hospitals called Parallel Pathway Programme (PPP) with MATCVS, Academy of Medicine Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.But the ministry was met with an obstacle that stopped it from allowing the trained surgeons to serve at full capacity.

Four of those fully trained and certified surgeons were recently rejected by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), a statutory body comprising appointed and elected medical professionals from the government, private sector and universities that oversees policy matters of the medical profession.

“Instead of being recognised professionally by MMC, we have to bring them in to serve in government hospitals via gazettement, a process which takes about six months.

“The problem faced by the 28 trainee cardiothoracic surgeons, plus four who graduated, seems to be due to technicalities and a misnomer in the registered qualification requirement.”