KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is sponsoring some 800 doctors to pursue specialist and subspecialist training to address the shortage of such professionals in the country.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, said the figure was an increase from only 400 in 2010, with over 90 subspeciality programmes.
"The ministry has been sending doctors to local and foreign institutions to further their medical education up to the Masters and PhD level upon which they can specialise and sub-specialise overseas," he told reporters after launching the First Stem Cell Congress here yesterday.
"This is to tackle the shortage of specialist doctors in government hospitals."
The popular areas of study included nephrology, cardiology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, urology, breast and endocrine surgery, intensive care, spine orthopaedics as well as neonatology. It was noted that there were currently 5,000 specialists nationwide of which 3,000 were serving in the public sector.
Liow said a specialist wishing to sub-specialise would be required to undergo supervised training under a consultant for two to three years locally, followed by additional exposure in overseas training centres for about a year.
"The ministry has been sending doctors for specialist training to, among others, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Europe."
He also highlighted a new development in postgraduate medical speciality training, an agreement with the Royal College of Physicians Ireland accepting about 80 students a year, with the first batch to start next year.
He said as of this month, there were 333 trainees in the training programme and the number of new intakes varied between 100 to 130.
"Local universities have also been training a lot of doctors under the masters programme and they are given the opportunity to go overseas for subspeciality training. We also urge private hospitals to train specialists on their own to assist the government in tackling the shortage of specialist doctors in the country."
The country's 30 medical schools were producing an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 doctors annually.
Liow said there were 35,000 doctors in the country and the government hoped the ratio of one doctor to 400 people could be achieved by 2020.
On the proposed 1Care Health Plan, Liow said the public should not be worried about the plan as nothing was finalised.
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