‘It’s about national interest’ | The Star

PETALING JAYA: Since about 30% of registered specialists in the country come from the parallel pathway programme, the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) must recognise the role it has played in increasing the number of specialists, says former health minister Tan Sri Dr S. Subramaniam (pic).

There are two specialist training programmes available for doctors, namely Master’s programmes provided by public universities and the parallel pathway programme that is certified by the Royal Colleges representing different specialities, mainly from the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

Training for both is conducted in public hospitals and university hospitals here.

Doctors who cannot enter a Master’s programme for various reasons would take up the parallel pathway programme to qualify as specialists.

Dr Subramaniam said any concern about maintaining standards could be resolved by agreeing to the National Postgraduate Curriculum and strictly adhering to it.

“I hope the proposed amendments to the Medical Act 1971 will address any loopholes that make it difficult for the MMC to accord recognition to the parallel pathways,” Dr Subramaniam said when contacted.

“By addressing these legal constraints, if any, qualifications provided by the Royal Colleges can be listed as recognised postgraduate qualifications by the MMC,” he added.

Dr Subramaniam said both forms of specialist training appeal to different groups of doctors as per their personal inclinations.

“As a result of the presence of both pathways, more doctors are able to become specialists. In many ways, that fulfils a national need.

“I hope that the members of the MMC will collectively put the national interest at heart and assist in resolving this current situation,” he said, adding that having alternatives could only be good for the country.

He said prior to 1973, specialists working in government hospitals were accredited by the Royal Colleges as Master’s programmes only began that year.

“The (first such) Master’s programme was started by Universiti Malaya in 1973 and subsequently other public universities started their own programmes. At present, there are more than 20 Master’s programmes conducted by local universities.

“Prior to 2012, there was no legal process in place to recognise and register specialists.

“However, we did have a robust system for accrediting and recognising undergraduate qualifications for the purpose of registration as medical officers with the MMC.

“As a response to a longstanding request from the medical fraternity, the Medical Act was amended in 2012 to allow for the creation of the National Specialist Register (NSR).

“The amendments came into effect in 2017 after they were properly gazetted,” Dr Subrama-niam (pic) added.

After 2017, only doctors in the NSR could call themselves specialists. This led to the creation of a list of recognised postgraduate qualifications by the MMC.

“Over time, the qualifications provided by the Royal Colleges came to be known as the parallel pathway,” said Dr Subramaniam, who served as health minister from 2013 to 2018.

He said the current controversy over the recognition of the parallel pathway programme was triggered by some members of the MMC questioning the legitimacy of the programme and its long-term necessity.

“Among the reasons given was that the parallel pathway programme did not fulfil the legal requirements of the Medical Act,” he said.

“There have been aspersions as to the quality of those who qualified through the parallel pathway.

“To address this, there was an initiative by the Deans Council to create a National Postgraduate Curriculum to standardise the training under the two programmes.

“The initiative, which began in 2014, led to the creation of the National Postgraduate Curriculum for 12 specialities.

“By implementing this curriculum, we can ensure broad standardisation between the two programmes.

“Both these programmes have been complementing each other in producing specialists for our country,” said Dr Subramaniam.

“The large number of doctors who became specialists through the parallel pathway over the many decades and served the nation well, stand testimony to the quality of the programme. The MMC is the custodian of the NSR and maintains the list of postgraduate qualifications,” he added.

Dr Subramaniam said the future of the parallel pathway is now dependent on the MMC.

Khairy Jamaluddin, who was health minister from 2021 to 2022, said in his Keluar Sekejap podcast recently that the Health Minister, the Higher Education Minister, and the Health director-general must resolve the problem.

It has gone on long enough and left many doctors who have done the parallel pathway programme stuck in limbo, he added.