Plight of unregistered doctors (Pt 1)
Rita DarlingtonPublished: Apr 21, 2008 5:58 AM | Updated: Apr 21, 2008 6:03 AM
The health minister and director-general of health have failed to understand the plight of unregistered doctors in Malaysia. This issue should not be treated as a platform for power or a battle of egos, or as a money-making scam.
Most of us who graduated in1992 have families to support on uncertain income, and also have to come up with money for training and examinations. This is not only near impossible but also unreasonable.
The health minister and director-general of health have failed to understand the plight of unregistered doctors in Malaysia. This issue should not be treated as a platform for power or a battle of egos, or as a money-making scam.
Most of us who graduated in1992 have families to support on uncertain income, and also have to come up with money for training and examinations. This is not only near impossible but also unreasonable.
Even if we receive government loans, it is unfair and impractical to force us to go for a compulsory course of three years and sit for a final exam, when we received our medical degree over 15 years ago.
One then has to slave for two years as a houseman and three years as a medical officer, before being eligible for permanent registration. Many of us will be near retirement age by then.
We have lost more than 10 years of our career because our medical degree is not recognised in Malaysia. We are deprived of our right to employment when doctors from countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and India are employed in Malaysia. They have the same quality of education, but are at a disadvantage because they don’t know local languages.
No individual willfully goes to an unscheduled medical school/college/university. Most of our parents have more than one child to educate and want to give all their children equal opportunities, even when more than one wants to pursue medicine.
Agents helped us choose the medical school/college/university, or we go through the embassy, which advised us on colleges recognised by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC). In some cases, students sponsored by Mara and the Public Service Commission were sent to unscheduled universities. The authorities should have done their homework first.
We were sent with the intention of enrolling in a recognised university. But if the university had overloaded their quota of foreign students, we were sent to unscheduled universities with an assurance that we would be transferred to a scheduled institution after Year 1 - but this never took place.
On Feb 6, 2002, the cabinet decided to absorb graduates from unscheduled universities directly into the healthcare system to fill vacancies for 3,500 doctors. Then Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said the government recognises medical degrees from about 300 universities worldwide, but that there were many good universities whose medical degrees and facilities have yet to be evaluated by his ministry.
Yet, the MMC imposed a six-month self-sponsored preparatory course conducted by three universities - Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Malaya - before candidates sat an examination. The results were appalling and, despite all attempts, unscheduled doctors remain unemployed.
Questionable legitimacy
World renowned universities like Louis Pasteur University, Munich University and Hamburg University are not recognised by the MMC. This clearly shows that recognition is not done on the bases of quality, but is done arbitrarily.
• India: Two colleges under the same university, teaching the same curriculum, providing the same rigorous training and stringent medical examination, and issuing the same degree have received different registration status by the MMC. Many colleges in India that are recognised by MMC have been de-recognised by the Medical Council of India.
• Indonesia: The MMC allowed students to transfer to a recognised university after four years of education in an unrecognised university. The recognised universities took a capitation fee of RM60,000. As such, the theory and clinical training at an unscheduled university should also be recognised by MMC.
• Iraq: Baghdad University and Basrah University remain on the updated list of scheduled/recognised medical schools/universities dated October 2005. Despite the universities being dysfunctional due to the war and civilian unrest, recognition is still accorded.
Many of the universities/medical schools unrecognised by MMC, are over 30 years old and have their own hospitals for students to learn and practice.
In contrast, many medical colleges in Malaysia started barely four years ago, are short of staff and equipment, have no hospital of their own and use the facilities of the closest general hospital or other facilities willing to entertain them for training purposes.
Registered and unregistered universities go through the same standards of training and examination. Why aren’t all foreign graduates made to go through the same qualifying examination in Malaysia to get into the healthcare system?
Double standards
Self-financed foreigners, who graduated from unscheduled universities, have been accepted into local universities to pursue a masters programme in all disciplines in medical sciences and even given employment upon completing their course. Being allowed to do a masters programme means these foreigners are given limited registration to do clinical studies.
According to the MMC regulations, a doctor cannot examine or perform procedures on a patient unless he is registered with the Council. Why the double standards? Why are we denied this special consideration when we want to join the healthcare system to serve in our country, for our country? Why are foreigners getting preference over us?
Doctors from Egypt, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India have been employed to reduce the shortage of doctors. They are unable to speak Bahasa Malaysia. Malaysian doctors are working overtime and are underpaid, but have to help these foreign doctors. Individuals speaking Arabic are being brought in for interpretation purposes.
Dr Kuljit Singh. Deputy Secretary of MMA, in an article, ‘Clinical Specialist Register, A good move forward….’ (Berita MMA, July 2006) stated: “We take in foreign doctors from unrecognised universities but deprive our own citizens (the chance to practise) if they come from similar unrecognised places. Sometimes it looks odd, but we have to digest these facts gracefully.”
Many individuals pose to be medically sound and open their own ‘business’ to ‘serve the public. Bomohs and individuals practising traditional medicine - curative and conventional treatments - conduct procedures like needle puncturing and even give out prescriptions. How are these procedures and prescriptions safe for the public?
Pharmacies monitor blood sugar levels, blood pressure and even prescribe diabetic and hypertensive medication. Pharmacists are not formally trained or qualified for this and yet they do so. Is this safe for the public?
We are qualified doctors, but are considered ‘dangerous’ to the public. Some of us work in pharmaceutical warehouses, selling different products to make a living. Some of us are forced to sit at home; unable to get employment.
We are qualified professionals and yet we are ‘unrecognised’. What is ‘unrecognition’?
RITA DARLINGTON is the pseudonym for the wife of an unregistered doctor, who incidently has an MBBS degree from Mysore University and a Masters degree is Special Education.
Most of us who graduated in1992 have families to support on uncertain income, and also have to come up with money for training and examinations. This is not only near impossible but also unreasonable.
Even if we receive government loans, it is unfair and impractical to force us to go for a compulsory course of three years and sit for a final exam, when we received our medical degree over 15 years ago.
One then has to slave for two years as a houseman and three years as a medical officer, before being eligible for permanent registration. Many of us will be near retirement age by then.
We have lost more than 10 years of our career because our medical degree is not recognised in Malaysia. We are deprived of our right to employment when doctors from countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and India are employed in Malaysia. They have the same quality of education, but are at a disadvantage because they don’t know local languages.
No individual willfully goes to an unscheduled medical school/college/university. Most of our parents have more than one child to educate and want to give all their children equal opportunities, even when more than one wants to pursue medicine.Agents helped us choose the medical school/college/university, or we go through the embassy, which advised us on colleges recognised by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC). In some cases, students sponsored by Mara and the Public Service Commission were sent to unscheduled universities. The authorities should have done their homework first.
We were sent with the intention of enrolling in a recognised university. But if the university had overloaded their quota of foreign students, we were sent to unscheduled universities with an assurance that we would be transferred to a scheduled institution after Year 1 - but this never took place.
On Feb 6, 2002, the cabinet decided to absorb graduates from unscheduled universities directly into the healthcare system to fill vacancies for 3,500 doctors. Then Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said the government recognises medical degrees from about 300 universities worldwide, but that there were many good universities whose medical degrees and facilities have yet to be evaluated by his ministry.
Yet, the MMC imposed a six-month self-sponsored preparatory course conducted by three universities - Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Malaya - before candidates sat an examination. The results were appalling and, despite all attempts, unscheduled doctors remain unemployed.
Questionable legitimacy
World renowned universities like Louis Pasteur University, Munich University and Hamburg University are not recognised by the MMC. This clearly shows that recognition is not done on the bases of quality, but is done arbitrarily.
• India: Two colleges under the same university, teaching the same curriculum, providing the same rigorous training and stringent medical examination, and issuing the same degree have received different registration status by the MMC. Many colleges in India that are recognised by MMC have been de-recognised by the Medical Council of India.
• Indonesia: The MMC allowed students to transfer to a recognised university after four years of education in an unrecognised university. The recognised universities took a capitation fee of RM60,000. As such, the theory and clinical training at an unscheduled university should also be recognised by MMC.
• Iraq: Baghdad University and Basrah University remain on the updated list of scheduled/recognised medical schools/universities dated October 2005. Despite the universities being dysfunctional due to the war and civilian unrest, recognition is still accorded.
Many of the universities/medical schools unrecognised by MMC, are over 30 years old and have their own hospitals for students to learn and practice. In contrast, many medical colleges in Malaysia started barely four years ago, are short of staff and equipment, have no hospital of their own and use the facilities of the closest general hospital or other facilities willing to entertain them for training purposes.
Registered and unregistered universities go through the same standards of training and examination. Why aren’t all foreign graduates made to go through the same qualifying examination in Malaysia to get into the healthcare system?
Double standards
Self-financed foreigners, who graduated from unscheduled universities, have been accepted into local universities to pursue a masters programme in all disciplines in medical sciences and even given employment upon completing their course. Being allowed to do a masters programme means these foreigners are given limited registration to do clinical studies.
According to the MMC regulations, a doctor cannot examine or perform procedures on a patient unless he is registered with the Council. Why the double standards? Why are we denied this special consideration when we want to join the healthcare system to serve in our country, for our country? Why are foreigners getting preference over us?
Doctors from Egypt, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India have been employed to reduce the shortage of doctors. They are unable to speak Bahasa Malaysia. Malaysian doctors are working overtime and are underpaid, but have to help these foreign doctors. Individuals speaking Arabic are being brought in for interpretation purposes.
Dr Kuljit Singh. Deputy Secretary of MMA, in an article, ‘Clinical Specialist Register, A good move forward….’ (Berita MMA, July 2006) stated: “We take in foreign doctors from unrecognised universities but deprive our own citizens (the chance to practise) if they come from similar unrecognised places. Sometimes it looks odd, but we have to digest these facts gracefully.”
Many individuals pose to be medically sound and open their own ‘business’ to ‘serve the public. Bomohs and individuals practising traditional medicine - curative and conventional treatments - conduct procedures like needle puncturing and even give out prescriptions. How are these procedures and prescriptions safe for the public?Pharmacies monitor blood sugar levels, blood pressure and even prescribe diabetic and hypertensive medication. Pharmacists are not formally trained or qualified for this and yet they do so. Is this safe for the public?
We are qualified doctors, but are considered ‘dangerous’ to the public. Some of us work in pharmaceutical warehouses, selling different products to make a living. Some of us are forced to sit at home; unable to get employment.
We are qualified professionals and yet we are ‘unrecognised’. What is ‘unrecognition’?
RITA DARLINGTON is the pseudonym for the wife of an unregistered doctor, who incidently has an MBBS degree from Mysore University and a Masters degree is Special Education.
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