KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has expressed its disappointment with the Health Ministry for saying contract doctors must fund their own specialisation studies if they wish to pursue these.

MMA president Dr. N. Ganabaskaran said the response by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Adham Baba in a written parliamentary reply on Wednesday could eventually lead to a brain drain of sorts.

In his response, Dr. Adham said that although contract medical officers were not eligible for Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan at this time, they could still further their specialist studies through self-financing or outside sponsorship and further their studies abroad.

"According to the reply currently, 23,928 permanent Medical Officers (MO) have not yet pursued specialist study with the ministry, an amount it considers suitable for the number of extra specialists it needs,” Dr. Ganabaskaran said in a statement.

However he said Dr. Adham’s reply omitted the fact that with every generation of doctors, there will be some who would like to specialise and some that would not, due to personal interests, social and personal capabilities as well as opportunities.

"What the MMA would like to see is that every generation of doctors be given this equal opportunity to become the best that they can be, and specialisation is one of those ways.

"The written reply also omitted saying that even if you were to complete your training overseas, that there are no job vacancies in the government service for doctors at the moment due to the freeze on hiring since 2015. Thus, there is little chance of returning once you have left,” Dr. Ganabaskaran said.

The MMA president pointed out that specialist training in Malaysia is almost entirely dependent on the ministry’s hospital system together with the training platform of universities.

"The private sector does not have the patient load nor the variety of cases to perform specialist training, not to mention the issues with indemnity and patient choice. This was discussed before by the MMA with the various leaders of the major private hospital groups in the country.

"Partnerships like what was done with Sunway Medical Group for example, can be further explored. Amongst the other suggestions previously discussed was to implement a transfer fee system for specialists migrating to the private sector,” he said.

Dr. Ganabaskaran said that all of this would however require more engagement and planning to ensure a fair deal for all involved, including the doctor, the ministry and the private hospitals.

"Specialist training is a sacrifice, a sacrifice taken by some to not only better ourselves but to increase our capabilities to treat more complicated health conditions. It involves long hours, large expenditures and lost time with family and loved ones.

"Should we encourage more doctors to leave for training, we will see less and less return to serve. The brain-drain of professionals seen in Malaysia over the course of the years has been great and should we continue our current arrogance, we may lose even more,” he said.

Adding that Malaysian professionals are always valued everywhere they go as they are multilingual, hardworking and resourceful in nature, Dr. Ganabaskaran said Malaysian doctors are trained with ample hands on experience, with the resourcefulness to practice in a resource-poor environment.

"What we are lacking at the moment for our junior doctors is the opportunity to continue their training to the higher levels that they aspire to.

"To this, MMA’s Section Concerning House Officers and Medical Officers had recently met the ministry and will be presenting our proposals soon to the Public Services Department with regards to an extended contract for the contract junior doctors to allow for specialist training,” he said.

Dr. Ganabaskaran argued that the lack of opportunities for contract medical officers to pursue specialisation in the public sector is a matter of national concern, as without the continuity in training Malaysia would see a shortfall of specialist doctors in the future, and with it the ability to continue to maintain the high standards of healthcare we are used to.

"The numbers tell us the story that we need to see, as we projected about 13,000 specialists will be needed by 2020, yet we are only at 8,000 specialists at both private and in the government hospitals.

"For our country we currently have only 51 government hospitals with specialists, and anyone reading from the rural areas will attest that the majority of specialty care is centred in the major cities,” he said.

Dr. Ganabaskaran then urged the executive and administrative branches of government together with the Health and Education ministries to come together and take the issue seriously.

"Let us all engage and work together to ensure that universal healthcare is achieved, and with-it better access to specialist care.

"To safeguard the health of our country we will need to ensure that there is equal opportunity for the junior doctors to continue their training and to continue to serve the people of Malaysia,” he said.