KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — A bill on amendments to the Medical Act 1971 (Act 50) is to be tabled and debated in the fourth week of this Parliament session, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the bill would be tabled to resolve irregular medical specialist training in Malaysia, involving master’s programmes in medicine and the parallel pathway medical specialist training.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PN-Kuala Langat) during Ministers’ Question Time.
Dr Yunus wanted to know if the government would postpone the tabling of the amendments to Act 50 and refer it first to the Special Select Committee on Health.
Dr Dzulkefly said 6,933 medical officers have received sponsorship to undergo medical specialist training, with 6,142 in the master’s programme.
The remaining 791 officers are undergoing parallel pathway specialist training, he said, adding that another 2,622 officers are also in the parallel pathway programme but without sponsorship.
He said the government has allocated substantial funds, especially for the Master of Medicine programme, which is conducted by local higher learning institutions.
“The estimated annual expenditure to sponsor the Master of Medicine programme is RM142.4 million, while the sponsorship for the Parallel Pathway Specialist Training programme is RM10 million,” he said.
Clinical training is mostly conducted at Health Ministry facilities such as hospitals, health clinics, and district health offices, he said.
— Bernama
