Probe on med colleges

Star: PUTRAJAYA: Two private medical colleges are under investigation by the Health Ministry for violating regulations pertaining to training of students in the clinical phase of their studies.
The colleges are believed to be taking in too many students and not providing adequate training for them, which is vital before they can be full-fledged doctors.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said that, after a six-month-probe, the ministry found the lecturer-student ratio to be 1:20 when ideally it should be one to between six and eight.
“While Universiti Malaya alone is churning out about 200 students each year, these private colleges, which have been operating less than 10 years and have produced 300 students,” he said.
“We are trying to find out if they have the capacity to absorb so many students and if the quality of the students is up to mark,” he told reporters after a dialogue session with some 400 final year medical students from Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Universiti Putra Malaysia at the ministry here yesterday.
Dr Chua said such acts by the private colleges would tarnish the name of the country as a centre of excellence for education.
Health director-general Tan Sri Ismail Merican, who was also at the event, said initial investigations also found that there was no full-time lecturer at the colleges.
He said the ministry and the Malaysian Medical Council would send warning letters to the two colleges and their certification would not be renewed if they failed to heed the advice.
“We can even check on the quality of the clinical training overseas.”
Ismail, who is also the council chairman, however, said the students would not be affected when this happened as they would be enrolled in other colleges.
When Dr Chua was asked about the ministry's preparation to prevent a recurrence of bird flu, he said all precautions had been put in place.