Dental Act 2018 enforcement unfair and unjust to Taiwan graduates – Ching Yong
SIBU: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Dudong branch chairman Wong Ching Yong said the enforcement of the Dental Act 2018 which will take effect on Jan 1, 2022 for five years is unfair and unjust to graduates from seven dental schools in Taiwan.
The seven are National Taiwan University College of Medicine, National Defence Medical College, National Yang Ming University Medical College, Taipei Medical College, China Medical College, Chung Shan Medical and Dental College and Kaoshiung Medical College.
These schools are not listed in the Second Schedule of the Dental Act 1971. With the enforcement of the Dental Act 2018, graduates from these schools must sit for Professional Qualification to enable them to register with the Malaysia Dental Council (MDC).
“With the enforcement, those affected graduates would face huge difficulties as they have to sit for Professional Qualification to enable them to register with MDC,” he said.
According to him, these seven dental schools were fully recognised after a complete accreditation exercise and visitations in 1996 by the MDC.
Wong, who is also Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) deputy chairman, said such accreditations had enabled dental graduates from these schools to return and serve in Malaysia without having to sit for any qualification examination from 1996 until 2016.
However, he said Taiwanese dental graduates faced a sudden change in policy in 2016 when they were required to sit for an evaluation examination conducted by USM in order to be registered under Dental Act 1971.
Alerted with this issue in 2018, SUPP made appeals to the government to resolve this problem.
In 2019, the former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye temporarily suspended the need for the graduates from these schools to sit for evaluation examination between 2016 and 2021.
“Now, with the Dental Act 2018 come in force; if it is enforced without amendment without adding these seven schools, then it is a gross injustice to the dental graduates.
“We sincerely appeal for the gazettement of the aforesaid seven dental schools from Taiwan under Second Schedule [Section 12(1)] of the Dental Act 1971 as soon as possible.
“We urged the Health Ministry Khairy Jamaluddin to seriously look into our appeal,” he said.
He said he had written letters to the Ministry of Health, Chief Minister of Sarawak and Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian to look into this matter.
Meanwhile, in a statement by the Health Ministry recently, the enforcement of Dental Act 2018 will come into force from Jan 1, 2022 until Dec 31, 2026.
Under this Act, all dental graduates who wish to register with the MDC must pass the Professional Qualification Examination.
For those with qualifications listed in the Second Schedule of the Dental Act 1971, they are allowed to register with the MDC without having to sit for the examination.
Meanwhile, according to publicity secretary of SUPP Dudong operation room Dr Wong Chya Wei, there are 11,597 dentists practising at the private sector and the public sector.
He said there is an uneven distribution of dentists in the nation especially in Sabah and Sarawak.
“With only 11,597 dentists practising, we have a ratio of one dentist to 2,816 populations. WHO (World Health Organisation) has a recommendation of one dentist per 1,000 populations. So, we are still very far from that target,” he said.
Thus, he said without providing recognition to these seven schools, the nation will continue to face insufficient dentist practitioners to serve the population especially in Sabah and Sarawak.