Reverting To 1 Year Housemanship Not To Solve Shortage Says Ministry

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Health director-general Dr Radzi Abu Hassan said the proposed one-year training period for housemen is expected to be more efficient ‘on the condition that training quality is increased’. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: The health ministry says its proposal to revert the training period for house officers from two years to one is not to address the shortage of medical officers, but to “enhance productivity through more focussed and efficient training”.
Health director-general Dr Radzi Abu Hassan said the ministry will continue to ensure that house officers achieve the competency required before becoming junior medical officers.
“The supervisors at training centres will play an important role in training, monitoring and evaluating their performance,” he said in a statement today.
Radzi said the training period may be extended if their performance is unsatisfactory to ensure that quality and competency are guaranteed.
The ministry had said in a recent circular that the Medical Advisory and Action Council had proposed reducing the housemanship period to a year, as was previously done before it was increased to two years in 2007.
The Star reported the ministry as saying the council had proposed the policy reversal as the Medical Act 1971 stipulates that a doctor with provisional regis­tration requires at least one year of training.
However, Hartal Doktor Kontrak spokesman Dr Muhammad Yassin called the proposal a knee-jerk reaction to the shortage of medical officers.
“It is not trying to deal with the root cause of the problem – poor remuneration, workplace bullying and stress, and too many patients and too few doctors or healthcare ­workers,” he said.
Muhammad said the one-year period was previously extended to two years following complaints that medical officers were not well equipped to handle a variety of cases.
“Backtracking to one year raises questions. Will the medical officers now be ready to handle cases once they are posted to district hospitals?
“What will happen if they have to handle cases involving anaesthesia or psychiatry? How will they deal with issues if they are not exposed to these patient groups?” he said.
However, Radzi said the earlier extension came at a time when the number of medical graduates had increased, but there were not enough specialists and senior medical officers to supervise and support their training.
“In line with current developments, and after several improvements to the training process, including the increasing number of medical specialists and specialist hospitals, the ministry is now in the final stages of reviewing the proposal to revert the training period to one year.
“Based on a thorough assessment of the existing training system as well as recent developments in the Malaysian health service, the one-year training period is expected to be more efficient, on the condition that training quality is increased,” he said.
Radzi said the ministry has held engagement sessions with stakeholders, including the Malaysian Medical Council, the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, higher education institutions, and chief medical specialists. - FMT

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