To all medical specialists, learn from Dr Lu Yeow Yuen taking the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) to court for a judicial review.
The president of MMC is the Director-General of Health. The Medical Act 1971 stipulates so. Same for the Malaysian Dental Council (MDC), in accordance with the Dental Act 1971.
Based on the episodes that happened recently – for example, the non-recognition of four cardiothoracic surgeons and one neurosurgeon as specialists on the National Specialist Register (NSR) – views from my friends, who are also doctors, are as follows:
The President of MMC and MDC must be elected by its members. The presidents of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), Malaysian Bar Council, Sarawak Advocates Association, and Sabah Law Society are all elected by their members during a general meeting.
As such, many doctors have told me about their frustrations and unhappiness that the Medical Act is outdated and must be amended so that the MMC president can be democratically elected by its members to protect the professional interests and views of doctors.
Only then, the elected president of the MMC can be independent and brave enough to voice out the professional opinion of doctors who are members of MMC. The present DG is a civil servant who has to take instructions from the health minister.
Many doctors also told me that they are wondering if the present MMC Council members are sleeping in MMC Council meetings.
Based on the embarrassing episodes of the non-recognition of the specialist cardiothoracic qualifications from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSE), the present president of MMC should explain to the public how this could happen.
But he is still keeping mum. The RCSE wrote an open letter to the Minister of Health, detailing the collaboration of joint cardiothoracic training between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and RCSE, but MMC, without giving any reason, suddenly resolved not to register the four cardiothoracic surgeons who passed the specialist training by RCSE.
The health minister later replied that the MOH would continue recognising the parallel training provided by RCSE, etc.
Many doctors told me that the present Health DG must be replaced, because in a short space of less than a year, many incorrect and inappropriate decisions were made.
For example, housemen now can only work in Sarawak General Hospital, but not Sibu General Hospital or regional hospitals in Sarawak.
We encourage all those specialists whose qualifications are not recognised to take MMC to court for judicial review and let the court of law adjudicate the decisions of MMC.
Sarawak must regain its health and education autonomy. After that, we must form a Sarawak Medical Council that can manage our medical policies professionally.
Wong Ching Yong is the assistant central organisational secretary and chairman of SUPP Dudong branch.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
