Ministry not planning to reduce medical school quota

The Health Ministry does not plan to reduce the quota allowed for each medical school, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

He said this was not necessary because there was a moratorium in place on new medical courses.

“At this moment, we have no intention of cutting down the quota,” he said during a press conference at MIC headquarters recently.

The Higher Education Ministry extended the moratorium for five more years after it expired in April last year.

On May 30, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) said private medical colleges should restrict student intake to ease the oversupply of medical graduates.

Its newly-elected president Dr Ravindran R. Naidu said imposing a moratorium on new medical colleges was not enough to curb the growing glut of medical graduates.

He said this was due to the short-sighted policy of approving too many medical colleges despite the limited capacity to employ them.

For years, The Star has reported that there were too many medical graduates for the country’s training hospitals to accommodate and the problem has become so critical that some students have to wait up to a year before their houseman posting.

This was despite the moratorium.

Dr Subramaniam said with the contract system introduced at the end of last year, training would be provided to all doctors although the waiting time could still be long.

On the need for an aptitude test to select only those suitable to be doctors, he said: “We don’t want to make it an obligation. Each college can make its own decision.”

He also said the ministry was still discussing the need for a medical qualifying examination.