Draft bill to resolve parallel pathway issue with AGC - Dzulkefly

The draft amendment bill for the Medical Act to resolve the issue of registering medical doctors who obtain specialist qualifications through the parallel pathway has been submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) for review, said Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Dzulkefly said several engagement sessions will also be held with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), the Higher Education Ministry, and other stakeholders before it is presented to the cabinet.

“At the recent cabinet meeting, the higher education minister (Zambry Abdul Kadir) and I jointly presented a cabinet memorandum related to the specialist training or parallel pathway issue.

“There are 14 programmes abroad, (and) 29 master’s programmes in medicine conducted by nine local universities; all of these were compiled together after the Health Ministry faced various controversies and finally referred to the AGC for a legal opinion,” he told a press conference after officially opening the new building of Air Putih Health Clinic today.

He said the amendment bill is expected to be tabled in the Second Meeting of the Third Session of the current Parliament for debate.

The parallel pathway issue gained public attention when the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) requested Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) to admit non-bumiputera medical officers wishing to receive specialised training in the field of cardiothoracic, similar to how the institution accepts international students.

This came after the MMC rejected the application of four cardiothoracic surgeons to be listed in the National Specialist Register because the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Cardiothoracic Surgery (FRCS Ed) they obtained was not recognised.

UiTM is the only university in the country that offers a parallel pathway programme in collaboration with the National Heart Institute in cardiothoracic medicine.

On another matter, Dzulkefly said all 194 member countries of the World Health Organization have been given 10 months to review the targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) agreed upon at the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA77) in Geneva on June 1.

“Whatever we signed recently is not final or conclusive and will be revisited in a few more series of meetings among member countries. So all (countries) take back the draft that we have signed to be reviewed, given 10 months to provide any feedback and views,” he said.

Dzulkefly led the Malaysian delegation to Switzerland for WHA77, which, among other things, discussed the progress of negotiations for the targeted amendments to IHR 2005 and negotiations for the preparation of a Pandemic Agreement.

- Bernama

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