Are you telling me that the Ministry of Higher Education did not realise the number of students in Egypt? ONLY now they seem to know that the number of students studying in Egypt is unimaginable and have decided to check on their quality etc. There are almost > 10 000 students in Egypt with almost > 5000 of them doing medicine, that’s about 1000/year. MARA started to send students to Egypt over the last few years and this was followed by JPA. It was mainly to cut cost as sending students to UK, Ireland and Australia was beginning to get very expensive. Thus they started to send to Egypt, Poland, Moscow, Jordan, Indonesia and even Turkey. I can’t comment much on the quality of their graduates as I have not seen or supervised anyone of them.
However I have worked with some of their Egyptian specialists before, way back in 2003-2005. There were good ones as well as bad ones. Most of the good ones left in about 2 years due to frustration that they felt on the ground. They felt cheated by the government as they were told many juicy stories about the health system in this country. Imagine they were told that the cost of living in Malaysia for the whole family is only RM 1000/month and that we have Ultrasound and CT Scans in all our hospitals! Many of the good ones felt that the amount of money they got were not worth the effort and workload. Communication was another issue.
Unfortunately our MOH is trying the same stunt again, if you read below. MOH is going to negotiate with the government of Egypt/India and Sri Lanka to get the “Cream of the crop” specialist from these countries to work in our district hospitals. First of all, the ” Cream of the Crops” will either be happy working in their own country or would have left to US, Australia and UK. So, the specialist that we will be recruiting will be the rejected or second class ones. That was what happened 10 years ago. We had surgeons who were unable to operate!
Communication is a major problem with these specialist. They can speak English of course but not many of our rural patients can speak English!!, thanks to our education policy! How are you going to function as a doctor if you can’t communicate? Our nurses are equally bad at speaking English and thus would not be a good interpreter. I remember an Egyptian specialist using a nurse to translate and the translation was way out and the patient did not understand at all what the hell was going on!
Well, I hope the MOH will not make the same mistake they made 8 years ago!
Non-objection certs for studies in Egypt put on hold
KUCHING: The Higher Education Department has temporarily frozen the issuance of Non-Objection Certificate (NOC) to new students wanting to pursue their studies in Egypt.Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the move was part of the department’s efforts to re-evaluate the quality of courses offered by several universities in Egypt, besides the appalling lax in security there.”Right now, we are freezing the issuance of the NOC and the department will send its officials to Egypt soon to re-evaluate the quality of courses offered by several universities there, especially in the faculty of medicine,” he told reporters.He was commenting on developments involving Malaysian students who had to postpone their studies, following the political unrest in Egypt.He said the department’s officials would also convene discussions with the relevant universities in Egypt on the possibility of allowing the students to temporarily continue their studies at local universities in Malaysia.About 5,000 out of 11,000 Malaysian students in Egypt are studying medicine.
Meanwhile, up to 4,281 Malaysians have been evacuated from Egypt so far, including 451 who flew in to KL International Airport by MAS at 2.20am Friday.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said 268 more Malaysians were expected to fly into Changi International Airport in Singapore via Saudi Airlines Flight SV838 at 3.30 pm. Saudi Airlines do have a direct service to Malaysia.
“Buses will be provided to transport the passengers from the airport to bus terminals in Larkin, Melaka Central, Seremban and Serdang,” she said.
A Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130 aircraft carrying 100 Malaysians was also scheduled to arrive at the RMAF base in Subang Friday.
Govt negotiating to get specialist doctors from Egypt, India and Sri Lanka
KEMAMAN: In a bid to address the shortage of specialist doctors in rural hospitals, the Health Ministry is in the midst of negotiating with its counterparts in Egypt, India and Sri Lanka to source a pool of specialist doctors.
Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Saturday that it would be a government-to-government arrangement.
Egypt had sent a list of 58 specialists but the recent turmoil in that country had put the matter on hold. It would be revisited once the situation normalises, he said.
Liow said he would be visiting India in March and the list from that country would be finalised then.
Turmoil in Egypt delays arrival of specialists
KEMAMAN: The turmoil in Egypt has delayed the arrival of 58 specialists from the country, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
“The matter will be revisited once the situation normalises,” he said, adding that he would also be visiting India and Sri Lanka in March to finalise the list of specialists who would be coming from these countries.
Liow, who visited the Kemaman Hospital here, said the ministry would only select the cream of the crop among medical practitioners from all three countries.
“We want the best for our hospitals, thus we decided to hold talks directly with government officials from these countries without sourcing the specialists privately.
“Through this arrangement, recognised foreign specialists can opt to serve in Malaysia for about two years without losing their seniority upon returning to their countries,” he said.
Liow revealed that this was a short-term measure to address the shortage of specialists in rural hospitals and alleviate the heavy workload at major government medical institutions due to the high number of patients who need specialised health care.
Liow also announced that his ministry had approved a RM10mil allocation to improve facilities and equipment at Kemaman Hospital.
He said the ministry had also given the nod for the construction of a specialist hospital in Kijal.
