GEORGE TOWN, March 1 — Malaysia only has 115 oncologists catering to a population of 34 million, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
He said more must urgently be trained as the ideal ratio is eight to 10 oncologists per million people.
“The current ratio stands at 3.4 oncologists per one million people, which is critically low,” he said during the launch of the second AMDI International Oncology & Medical Physics Symposium 2019.
Only five oncologists were added from 2017, which the minister said was not encouraging.
He said this was in view of non-communicable disease rates such as cancer rising every year.
“Cancer is the fourth most common cause of death in Malaysia with approximately 37,000 cases reported every year,” he said, adding that this was set to be over 55,00 by 2030.
“The advancement in cancer treatment needs to be supported equally by an adequate number of specialists in this field and in order to achieve the numbers, training programs for oncologist must be at the forefront,” he said.
He then hoped Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and the Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (AMDI) can progress further and provide training in clinical oncology, radiotherapy and related fields.
“I was told AMDI USM has established an oncology and radiotherapy centre in Bertam, Kepala Batas, the only radiotherapy centre under public institution in northern Malaysia and has been actively involved in the treatment, teaching, training and research in the field of oncology and radiotherapy since 2015,” he said.
He said the signing of a memorandum of agreement between AMDI and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust today is a major leap for cancer treatment here.
He said the collaboration between AMDI and a world-renown cancer centre is a good move to turn Malaysia into a hub on radiology training in this region.
Under the collaboration, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust will be offering The Christie Fellow Royal College of Radiologists (FPCR) Part 2B Clinical Oncology Preparatory Course for the first time in Asia.
