Building Bridges: Fostering Synergy for Specialist Training
The Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (AMM) commends the proactive collaboration between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in addressing crucial issues pertaining to the parallel pathway programme (PPP) for medical professionals.
The recent announcement by the YB Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad regarding the joint memorandum to be submitted to the Cabinet reflects a significant step towards ensuring the quality of healthcare services in Malaysia. The Master’s programmes play a vital role in fostering specialization and expertise in various medical fields Simultaneously, the parallel pathway programme offers an alternative route to be a medical specialist, thus contributing to the expansion of our specialist workforce. Hence, every effort must be made to strengthen both training programmes and ensure completion of training so that trainees are able to register in the National Specialist Register (NSR).
MOH and AMM have collaborated for over two decades to discuss, debate, and fine-tune the various aspects of setting up NSR. In 2006, MOH proposed that AMM be entrusted to initiate and maintain NSR under the purview of the National Credentialing Committee, chaired by the President of the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) who was also the Director-General of Health.
A year before NSR was formally launched in 2006, the then Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Datu Dr Mohamed Taha wrote in AMM’s newsletter, Berita Akademi, on the establishment and purpose of NSR. In his write-up, he stated that “The NSR will ensure that doctors designated as specialists are appropriately trained and fully competent to practice the expected higher level of care in the chosen specialty. The NSR is, in fact, an exercise in self-regulation by the medical profession, having the interest and safety of the public at heart. Through the NSR, the medical profession will strive to maintain and safeguard the highest standards of specialist practice in the Country”.
It is high time for us to steer our focus towards capacity-building via a unified and structured competency-based training programme to increase the number of specialists in the country to meet the nation’s needs. All stakeholders must work together harmoniously to resolve the issues related to specialist training without further discord. While we must applaud the joint efforts of YB Minister of Health and YB Minister of Higher Education to address issues related to specialist training; the current impasse affecting some specialists who were denied their registration into NSR must be resolved forthwith. This matter firmly falls solely within the ambit of MMC, and we await their decision.
