Govt Hospitals To Churn Out Doctors

PENANG, June 29 (Bernama) -- The public hospitals will be transformed into teaching hospitals to churn out doctors, says Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
He said the Cabinet decided this Wednesday in efforts to produce more doctors and reduce the cost involved in sending medical students overseas.
A committee jointly chaired by the secretary-general and director general of the Health and Higher Education Ministry has been established to look into the matter.
Dr Chua said the committee would look into ways on how the hospitals could be modified to accommodate classrooms, seminar rooms, research and development rooms and lecture rooms.
When met by reporters after visiting the Balik Pulau Hospital here, he said currently 98 of the 131 hospitals are being used by the 10 private and 9 public institutions of higher learning for the clinical training of their medical students.
The experienced specialists in the hospitals would tutor the medical students, he said.
He said while the specialists' new role as "lecturers or presenters" would not disrupt hospital operations, the big number of students may not provide a comfortable atmosphere for the patients and therefore it must be implemented carefully.
The rules and the implementation methods would be worked out by both parties.
Dr Chua said the government spent RM330 million annually to sponsor 530 medical students overseas and if they could be trained locally it would contribute to big savings.