Medical Act 1971 to be amended to solve parallel pathway issue - Dr Dzulkefly

KUALA LUMPUR: Amendments to the Medical Act 1971 (Act 50) have been proposed to resolve the issue of registering medical doctors who obtain their specialist qualifications through the parallel pathway and to streamline the process of recognition and registration as medical specialists, said Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

The Health Minister said the proposed amendments had been submitted by him and Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir through a Cabinet Memorandum yesterday.

"The Cabinet meeting has agreed in principle to this proposal. The bill for the amendments will be presented at the Second Meeting of the Third Session of the Fifteenth Parliament in 2024 after it is approved by the Cabinet," he said in a statement yesterday.

According to Dzulkefly, the Cabinet also recognises the increasing need for specialist services in all healthcare facilities throughout the country.

He said the parallel pathway, implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and medical master's programmes by local higher education institutions (HEIs), aims to produce more specialists to meet these demands.

Through the proposed amendments, he said, both pathways for specialist training can be implemented more systematically from a legal perspective.

"Consequently, doctors who have completed any such programmes will be eligible for registration as medical specialists in the National Specialist Register (NSR) under the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC). This will allow for the prompt resolution of any arising issues," he said.

He said MOH will ensure that the quality of training and services, the competency of practitioners and medical specialists, as well as patient safety aspects, remain protected upon the implementation of these amendments.

The parallel pathway issue came into focus when the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) requested Universiti Teknologi MARA to allow the entry of non-Bumiputera medical officers who wish to undergo specialised training in cardiothoracic fields, similar to how the institution accepts international students.

This request came after MMC rejected the applications of four cardiothoracic surgeons to be listed in the NSR because their Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Cardiothoracic Surgery (FRCS Ed) was not recognised.

-- BERNAMA

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