What has been said about the present generation of doctors not being able to diagnose diseases and ailments well does not apply to the large majority of dedicated medical professionals out there.

The blame should partly rest on the government and the authorities for approving many new local private medical colleges and allowing the existing ones to have medical faculties without looking into the fact as to whether they are capable enough to produce good medical professionals to meet the country's needs.

If a well-connected company were to offer to set up a private medical college, the offer is taken up immediately without thinking about how it is going to be run and what kind of graduates it will produce.

These kind phenomenon is nothing new. The legal profession went through the same phase in the early 80s and 90s as it was very popular to read law during those times. There were colleges from the UK that were set up here offering all sorts of twinning programmes and the transfer of credits from one university to another. After some time the government and the legal profession's qualifying board had put a full stop to that and only recognised a few selected programmes.

Similarly we have to devise an aptitude test for would-be medical students to see whether they are really able to take the rigours of being a doctor. The National University of Singapore is already practicing such a programme where only those who are able to show the selectors that they really want to become doctors are selected to join the medical faculty.

We currently don't have such a system and we seem to find the cheapest way of becoming a doctor because our society gives so much of value and respect to the "Dr" title that one carries in front of one's name irrespective of whether one has the calibre and the ability to be one. Malaysians don't see the profession as a calling to help and treat the sick and ailing but instead see as a profession that makes money. Our society is such that we place a very high value on how much a person earns and what kind of house he lives in and what kind of car he drives. We don't bother as to whether in the process of accumulating the wealth, he practices dubious medicine.

Good clinical skills can only come about if the training is good and good training only comes from good places. Those who are really interested will take to this training naturally and become very good doctors. Quality will only come about when we are strict about the entrants. Not all straight A students are medical student material; why can't others be given a chance? What about those with lesser qualifications but have the zeal to become a doctor? When a would-be medical student shows determination, we must then encourage them and channel them in the right direction so that we have good doctors at the end of the day.

Once they are doctors, they must be given the opportunities to excel in their chosen fields of specialisation and there must not be any form of ridiculous administrative and bureaucratic hurdles in their paths. These will only make them frustrated medical professionals who will not pass on any good clinical skills that they have acquired to the young ones that come later.

Therefore the process and the way we look at obtaining a medical degree must be changed. The government, parents and students have to see it as a altruistic calling first and not a money- making scheme or arrangement. It is the entire circle that counts not just the end product.