Malaysian doctors in Britain ‘losing out’

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian doctors working in Britain are losing out in terms of promotions and job opportunities to their European colleagues.
Prof Dr Lokman Sain, the dean of the medical faculty of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) said he recently visited Ireland and found many Malaysian doctors there stuck as junior housemen and denied promotions as priority was given to European Union doctors.
“Many of our doctors have been sent to the smaller peripheral hospitals as they couldn’t get into the major hospitals in Dublin and Cork,” he said.
“And even at those hospitals, many are just doing junior housemen’s work which limits the amount of expertise and experience they get.
“I feel very upset because recent reports give the impression that doctors do not want to return to Malaysia because of the poor conditions here,” he added, referring to the preliminary report submitted by the UK Executive Council for Malaysian Students.
The report focused largely on why medical students, in particular, were not returning to work in Malaysia, citing reasons such as lower income, poorer working conditions, longer working hours, less-structured training programmes and lower chances of promotion.
“I have worked in Scotland and I can definitely say that Malaysians have more opportunities for training and promotion here; plus our standards here are on par with Britain, if not better.
“The information is misleading as some people will think that it is easier to become specialists in Britain but it is indisputable that we produce more specialists – about 400 specialists a year from UKM, Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia, compared to the 50 or so who come back from Britain every year,” he said.
Prof Lokman said the only reason why Malaysians wanted to remain in Britain was because they could earn more money there and therefore people should not blame the Government or the system.
“In fact, the foreign examiners who come to our hospitals have always said that our standards are high and our medical schools are of international standing as they are accredited by the Malaysian Medical Council according to international standards.
“I think that the people who wrote the report are misinformed. They have not been in touch with the doctors and the medical community,” he said.
However, a houseman here who declined to be named, said there were many areas in local hospitals which needed vast improvements to woo back those working overseas.
“For example, yesterday I was forced to work for close to 36 consecutive hours, with only 15-minute breaks for meals,” he said.
“I believe the situation in Britain is different as there are labour laws on the maximum number of hours one is allowed to work consecutively.
“We feel that the Health Minister (Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek), would be the key person to alleviate these problems, as the changes he’s made so far have already caused positive responses,” he added.