By Teo Nie Ching, Kulai MP
On Aug 19, New Straits Times reported that Deputy Education Minister Kamlanathan said that 418 places were available for a medical degree in public varsities this year, compared with 699 places last year, to prevent the oversupply of doctors as there were housemen in hospitals with no work to do.
It is definitely important to ensure that all the housemen are adequately trained, however why does the Education Ministry not reduce the intake of medical student at private universities and colleges?
According to a written parliamentary reply, there are 11 public universities that offer medical degree and the total number of medical students is 7,271.
However, there are 22 private medical institutions in our country and as at 23 September, 2013, the total number of medical students at private institutions was 10,558. Below are 4 of the private medical institutions with the most students: –
| Kolej Perubatan Melaka-Manipal | 1,623 | |
| International Medical University | 1,523 | |
| Management And Science University | 1,300 | |
| Institut Perubatan, Sains dan Teknologi Asia | 1,161 |
It is obvious that private institutions are enrolling more medical students than the public varsities, so why do we not reduce and restrict the intake of students at private institutions?
It is not cheap to train a doctor. In UK, each student costs the taxpayer £250,000 to put through medical school. Is it due to the continuous deficit budget for 17 years, our Education Ministry now decides to reduce the intake in public varsities and not the private sector?
It is the lack of co-ordination between Education Ministry and Health Ministry that lead us to where we are now. From the very beginning, the Education Ministry should not have allowed medical colleges to mushroom without considering the Health Ministry’s needs. To reduce the intake in public varsities will be unfair to the top students coming from the low-income families as their dream to become a doctor will now seem to be even more difficult to achieve.
