‘No standard for admission to medical courses in some varsities’
KUALA LUMPUR: A common qualifying examination has to be introduced as there is no standard for admissions to medical courses at universities in some countries abroad.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Koh Kar Chai said this was especially true in cases of admissions to medical courses in Indonesia, Eastern European and Russian universities.
“The recognition of this needs to be reviewed. A common qualifying examination must be introduced to all medical graduates of local government, private and foreign universities,” he said in explaining the MMA’s renewed calls for the government to introduce a unified examination for fresh medical graduates before they were allowed to undergo housemanship at public hospitals.
Testing, he said, should be academic and psychological.
“There are clear examples of these (on how the unified examination could be introduced by the Malaysian government), such as the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) in the United States, the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test in the United Kingdom and the Australian Medical Council (AMC) clinical examination for overseas graduates in Australia,” he said.
The USMLE is a three-step examination which measures the ability of medical graduates to apply not only their knowledge, but also concepts as well as patient-centred skills.
Medical graduates would only be eligible to apply for an unrestricted medical licence in the US if they passed all steps of the examination.
The British Council, on its website, explained that the PLAB was a test divided into two parts, which assessed those with overseas qualification as a doctor, to work safely as a senior house officer in a UK National Health Service hospital.
According to the Australian Medical Council Limited, the AMC exam is to test the level of attainment of medical knowledge, clinical skills and attitudes of newly qualified graduates of Australian medical schools, who are about to begin intern training.
On Wednesday, health expert Datuk Dr N.K.S Tharmaseelan had likened the proposed unified examination as the medical version of the CLP examination for all foreign and local graduates before they could be allowed to do their pupilage.
He had said that the proposed unified examination had been floated for years not only by the MMA, but also the Malaysian Medical Council.
Dr Tharmaseelan, who was MMA president from 2013 until 2014, said like the CLP examination, a fresh medical graduate might be given four attempts to pass if the unified examination were to be introduced.
The unified examination was among proposals raised by the MMA to not only reduce pressure on the public healthcare system, but subsequently eliminate bullying and avoid recurrences of the tragic incident that befell a trainee doctor last month.
The trainee in question, who was attached to the Penang Hospital, had fallen to his death.
Following his death, questions were raised on the mental stress and hardship faced by housemen. Also raised were the alleged prevalence of the bullying culture affecting the housemen.