COMMENT | Govt must resolve parallel pathway issue at cabinet meet

COMMENT | The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) is urging the government to resolve the issues in recognising the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS Ed) Cardiothoracic Surgery programme when the cabinet discusses the issue at its meeting tomorrow.

We wish to thank the prime minister for taking this step towards addressing the issue and look forward to a positive outcome.

The matter should not be prolonged any further given that the country is in dire need of more specialists. It has been reported that thousands are on the waiting list for life-saving cardiothoracic procedures at public healthcare facilities but at present, there are only 14 cardiothoracic surgeons serving in the public healthcare system throughout the country.

Clearly, there is no issue with the FRCS Ed cardiothoracic surgery programme’s quality of training as the programme is well structured.

Former health minister Dr S Subramaniam stated in his article in the online news portal Free Malaysia Today that the FRCS Ed programme is guided by training structures developed by the Malaysian Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery (MBCTS) in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, while trainees have been trained in some of the largest cardiothoracic centres in the country, including the National Heart Institute under the supervision of some of the country’s leading cardiothoracic surgeons.

“Furthermore, on Sept 15, 2018, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the College of Surgeons of Malaysia, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, the Malaysian Association for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Joint Committee of Specialist Training of Singapore signed a memorandum to conduct a quadripartite exit examination for the FRCS Ed cardiothoracic surgery programme,” he said.

This exit examination has the same standards and format as the examination conducted in the UK and is regulated by the UK General Medical Council.

It should be noted that the MBCTS will only award the Certificate of Completion of Training to those who successfully completed training and have passed the necessary examinations.

MMC recognition needed

All we need now is for the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) to recognise the programme. The MMC had announced its setting up of a task force to resolve the issue on March 26 but up to now, there has been no update.

We once again wish to bring to the government’s attention that data from the past obtained from the National Specialist Register (NSR) itself shows that the FRCS Ed qualification was indeed recognised.

Furthermore, there are several Malaysian specialists with this qualification registered with the NSR.

If indeed the qualification was previously recognised by the MMC, why is it an issue recognising it now?

The MMC should explain why the recognition in 2014 as seen on the NSR website was mysteriously removed.

AZIZAN ABDUL AZIZ is Malaysian Medical Association president.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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