Agency to address issue of grads with no clinical skills

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The introduction of the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) is expected to solve the problem of medical graduates who lack clinical skills.
The MQA is a merger of the National Accreditation Board and the Quality Assurance Division of the ministry, and the Bill to legislate this merger is to be tabled in Parliament this June.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shafie Salleh said the main reason for graduates' lack of skills was that medical students needed to have hospitals where they could undergo practical training.
“The problem does not arise with local university graduates because they go to hospitals from their first year onwards.
“This is where the Malaysian Qualification Framework (MQF) administered by the MQA comes in – to ensure all medical colleges and universities in the country adhere to the same standards,” he said, after launching the Integrated Outreach Programme Seminar 2006 at KL Sentral yesterday.
The MQA will serve as an agency to establish guidelines for every qualification and curriculum development and accreditation.
Following the low pass rate in the Medical Qualification Examination for graduates from unscheduled universities, the ministry is also looking into giving more funds to local universities to increase their capacity.
“We hope this will allow universities to support more medical students so that they acquire the necessary practical skills,” said Dr Shafie.
He said the ministry would look into claims that there were medical colleges in the country that operated out of shoplots.
Health director-general and Malaysian Medical Council president Datuk Dr Ismail Merican said last week that there were doctors who did not have clinical skills, and government hospitals were unable to accommodate practical training for the increasing number of medical students.