Over the last 4 years since I started this blog, I had written numerous articles and in formations about medical education, the life of a doctor and the general misconception of public about medicine. Unfortunately, many refused to believe and remained in denial phase. There were many distractors during my early days of this blog , making unnecessary insulting remarks to me. However, many had to swallow their own words when day by day, everything that I wrote in this blog became a reality. For those who followed this blog since January 2010, you will remember what I wrote about degree recognition issues, the marketing gimmicks of medical colleges, the mushrooming of medical colleges, the possible unemployment of future doctors, the declining income of doctors and many more articles that many refuse to believe. The reality is always a bitter truth that need to be swallowed. Slowly, most of these distractors has “disappeared” from this blog.
Today’s article in the Star by Dr Noorul Ameen (see below) would definitely make many people(public) to be surprised. Unfortunately, that is the reality. Declining incomes of doctors is very much a reality which will continue over the years to come. There will come a time where the income of doctors will not be much of a difference than a teacher or any other profession. The difference will be the money that you would have spent to become one and the increasing litigation rate. The number of medico-legal cases are on the rise and there are many lawyers nowadays who are willing to take up cases against doctors. In US, there are firms who promote themselves as experts in suing medical doctors! This website that belongs to a firm explains what is happening in the US and similarly in many other developed countries. It will only create Cover Backside Medicine(CBM) which in turn will increase the cost of healthcare due to unnecessary investigations.
With close to 34 medical colleges and almost 43 medical programs, we have the highest number of medical colleges per-capita population in the world. MMC was forced to come up with a guideline to prevent these colleges to take unqualified students but the criteria introduced is just too low. Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with a parent whose daughter has been offered a seat in Perdana UNiversity RCSI for just RM 250K for a course which is supposedly RM 800K! It seems that this offer is being given to those Indian students who scored 4flat but could not gain entrance into public university to do medicine. She is currently doing another course in a public university.The deal is being offered via MIC. Even the RM 250K can be obtained via PTPTN loan and education funds of the party. While I appreciate the “help” given by this university, I just wonder how a course that supposedly cost RM 800K can suddenly become RM 250K. As far as I know, none of these medical courses are recognised overseas. The first few batches were fully sponsored by the government via a special scholarship program specifically for this university (by PM’s department). Surprisingly, even the campus and the hospital has not started construction yet. If I can remember, the first private teaching hospital suppose to be ready by 2014. This could also indicate that the university is finding it difficult to attract students, especially international students.
Coming back to declining incomes of doctors, many doctors nowadays are trying their luck on unethical practices, aesthetic medicine and complimentary medicines. I know many doctors who have started unproven complimentary medical practices, selling supplements and even becoming official promoter for certain direct selling products. They are just trying to survive. The public still believes that doctors are rich and having easy life…………..
BTW, anyone want to make easy money, please read this SMS that I received yesterday:
” Agents wanted to promote Medical, Dental and Pharmacy. Loan PTPTN. Comm : RM 25K. Call 0xxxxxx. www. XXXX.com.my“
This SMS is from the same agency which I wrote in my previous article. From 5K it has become 25K!. It is a business and people are trying to make as much money as possible from our ignorant society…………………
When doctors can’t even afford a Proton
IN the old days, doctors drove Volvos but now they cannot even afford a Proton, says Qualitas Healthcare chairman and managing director Datuk Dr Noorul Ameen.
Having treated patients for 20 years, he knows what he’s talking about.
“I told my only child: ‘no way are you going to become a doctor’.
“Ten years ago our consultation fee was RM15 and today it’s still the same – it’s insulting what doctors earn here.
“Most general practitioners with standalone clinics earn between RM7,000 and RM9,000 per month but spend about 70% of their revenue on overheads,” he claims, adding that cost of healthcare delivery worldwide has increased and that Malaysia is no exception.
He feels the Government should either support the private healthcare industry or allow the free market to determine healthcare pricing in the country.
Qualitas is a chain of over 200 clinics, dental clinics and pharmacies in Malaysia, India, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.
Dr Noorul says Qualitas has acquired many clinics in the Klang Valley because GPs cannot sustain their practice.
The Government, he feels, “has no business” telling doctors what to charge if it is not offering tax breaks or incentives for the private sector which provides more than 50% of the nation’s healthcare needs.
“In Australia, the private sector is given grants and incentives to ensure quality and better clinical outcome for our patients.
“Here, many cost-incurring conditions are imposed on us, yet we receive no support from the Government.
“Instead of fault-finding and telling doctors this is the minimum you can charge, the Government should be telling patients what is the minimum they have to pay,” he says.
Dr Noorul, who spent a decade managing hospitals, denies that private hospitals are making huge profits, saying they need to constantly invest in the latest medical advancements.
Poor investment
“Hospitals are the worst investments one can make because the returns don’t justify the huge amounts spent,” he laments, adding that treatment here is cheaper than in Bangladesh.
On claims that doctors are also earning from dispensing medicine, he says the amount is peanuts.
In asking for higher fees, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) claims that their 15,000 members comprising general practitioners (GPs) and specialists are “hardly making ends meet” amid rising operations costs.
Patients are expected to pay between 10% and 30% more if the association’s “Medical Procedures and Services Nomenclature and Schedule of Relative Values” is accepted by the Health Ministry (MoH).
The new comprehensive proposal, to be submitted to the MoH by December, will not contain any fees, only relative values (which will be converted to Ringgit) for specialist procedures.
According to MMA president Datuk Dr N.K.S. Tharmaseelan, GPs currently get between RM30 and RM50 per consultation while specialists charge between RM50 and RM80.
“The MoH has approved a 14.4% increase for our consultation and specialist procedure fees but even that hasn’t been gazetted yet,” he says.
Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia (MPCAM) and Malaysian Primary Care Network (MPCN) president Dr Jim Loi says the MMA’s call for a 30% hike in doctors’ consultation fees may not be feasible in a sluggish economy.
He adds that together with the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Association of Malaysia (FPMPAM) and other related bodies, a plan to form the country’s first medical union is underway.
Association of Third Party Medical Claims Administrators Malaysia (TPA) vice-president Paul Cheok says he sympathises with GPs.
He says most GPs are charging rates that are much lower than what’s allowed in the 13th Schedule of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services (Private Hospitals and Other Private Healthcare Facilities) Regulations 2006.
“The reality is that some GPs are charging as low as RM5 for consultation because competition is too steep.
“For example, if a GP charges a flu patient RM35 for consultation, the bill for cough and cold plus medication could reach RM150. Who can afford that?
“Whether the professional fee hike is 14.4% or 30% is irrelevant because charging what is allowed will result in them not having any patients,” he observes.
To improve the welfare of GPs, the MMA has made several proposals to the MoH.
Dr Tharmaseelan says the MoH is considering allowing all non-communicable disease patients to do follow-up checks at GP clinics.
“The Government will supply the medicine and the GPs are paid a fixed consultation fee.
“We’ve also vociferously opposed the plan to build more 1Malaysia clinics in urban areas where many GP practices are located and requested that existing clinics be manned by private doctors.
“Pilot projects are now being conducted where GPs run the 1Malaysia clinics after office hours,” he says.
To prevent clogging up public hospitals and also to help GPs, the MMA is urging the MoH to foot the bill for public servants who visit private clinics.
Pagalavan's Avatar 
It’s funny to see that those who actually spend about 500k on their degree are now going to be having the same income as a normal hairstylist etc. The government is really making things worse especially with the new scholarship provided (bursary) to students. There are also a bunch of universities that provide MBBS course with an entry requirement of only 80% ATAR as compared with Australia which requires a 96% ATAR. The differences is huge and now “everyone can be a doctor” is a dream come true. I hope that the government or MMC will do something about it before Malaysia is filled with jobless doctors and that time Malaysia will surely become a joke.
More like ATAR 99.
The government to do something about this? Hello, it’s this precise government who created this mess to begin with. They will not do anything as long as there is still money to be milked from desperate students and parents.
It has already become a joke!
Actually other than the so called “desperate” students and parents, another huge issues is the government sponsored scholars. I am in a medical school myself and i can see huge amounts of JPA sponsored students who aren’t even in pursuing medicine. Yes there are some who are very eager to learn about medicine but a huge amount of them are just there to “Study and hope to win others only” without the actual helping each other attitude. Some even claim that they are “forced” to enter MBBS to prevent JPA from claiming money back from them. So JPA, since when did your so called “elite” students become shitty ones with only good results and no attitude.
JPA is still OK but MARA is worst. MARA practically forces students to do whatever course that the management decides!
Firstly, Johns Hopkins is one of the best medical schools in the world and Perdana University’s ability to attract JHU to Malaysia is commendable. The expensive program is due to the fact that most global campuses of major top universities charge similar fees to it’s home institution as many of the professors and course material will be highly identical to that of the main campus.
Secondly, the claim of declining earnings of doctors in Malaysia is beneficial to the economy as it shows that the healthcare industry in Malaysia is actually in a state of free market (unlike Dr. Noorul’s claim that government intervention is needed). The fact that GP’s today cannot charge patients RM30-RM50 for consultation fees means that the actual ‘value’ of the consultation is less than RM30-RM50. With numerous articles stating that wages of doctors are in a decline, parents should stop forcing/advising their kids to become doctors to make big bucks and this will develop med school students are really interested in serving patients.
ARA
JHU is just lending their name to be printed on the cert. This whole thing is a con job. The degree cannot be used in US or anywhere to practice except Malaysia. JHU itself do not recognize the degree by Perdana U. The Malaysian are just paying an inflated price which include the franchise fee to JHU believing that they got a similar degree as issued by JHU in USA. Perdana U is just hoping that they can syphon the money from JPA and PTPTN to make their big bucks.
Even their name is not printed except the sentence ” in collaboration with JH”
PU will be the issuer of the degree with their big logo on the cert. Perhaps, a tiny line of “in collaboration with JHU” will appear below the PU name.
As I said earlier, the jewel of the crown is the 150 acres of prime land inside Mardi UPM which has been given to PU for this so-called public-private partnership venture. Based on RM250 psf, the land is worth about RM1.6 billion.
But again, all student who want to get certificate from Perdana U Coll. Johns Hopkins must pass the standardized examination made from US called USMLE. Having that certificate from USMLE in all 3 step/stage will enable them to be recognized throughout world. It is not the certificate from university, but USMLE will become their ‘license’ to work.
Unlike Malaysia, I still confuse why we can’t just have standardized exam, regardless of university that you go for study, in order to get license to practice like how US do.
FYI, USMLE do NOT give you any international recognition. Only some countries like Qatar, UAE and NZ may consider, depending on your working experience. Even then, in NZ you will need to sit for their entrance exam (clinical) before applying for a job.Even in US, having USMLE do not guarantee you a job!
The important point people should know is, anybody can sit for the USMLE exams, it is NOT unique to PU. I think IMU has also formally started presenting their students for the exam.
And, no, it does NOT make them ‘recognised all over the world’. All countries have their own rules, and you will still need to sit for qualifying exams for most.
Atleast, it will give better future for people with USMLE, comparing them to only ‘Malaysia recognized medical program’. Farthest uni the can go are ukm and um, but only to Singapore. What a joke. I must say that our quality of Education are not dare enough to be tested. But again, throwing issue without solution, always become Malaysian habit, at least I can see here though.
I don’t think you got the point. Anyone can sit for USMLE. Even IMU, Melaka Manipal have started to offer students to do USMLE. Even students in Indonesian universities, India etc etc are doing USMLE. It is nothing great and anyone can do it as long as you are willing to spend the money. It does NOT give you any international recognition except giving you an opportunity to get a job in US.Even that is not guaranteed
Derma, do you mean a better future means to serve in developed countries like in Singapore, UK or USA? I am surprise of your short sighted opinion. So those who serve in India, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, African countries are all worthless to you?
dharma and Derma could be the same person, most probably have some connections with PU (but not JHU), maybe a student? a lecturer? a Staff? a parent or a relative of PU medical student? So poor doctor, what you expect from this person? Answer : Prooooo – PU but antiiiiii other Malaysian medical schools. period.
Dear Arvin,
It’s not actually free market forces at work when the govt restricts prices, has a monopoly in the sector (GLCs owning the vast majority of private hospitals) and actively competing against private GPs by opening 1Malaysia clinics in urban areas where there is no shortage.
Foreign universities are not in Malaysia or any other country overseas for altruistic reasons. They are here to make money, to fund the running of their home campus. Even the ‘non-profit’ trusts have to make money to continue to exist. Identical course material should mean less fees, not more (no need to reinvent the wheel or pay royalty to another university). Yes, if all their lecturers are from JHU, then that will contribute to high fees. The fact remains that it is not a branch campus but a collaboration with a politcally-connected businessman who has a prior fraud conviction.
FYI, this is not a branch campus but just a collaboration. That’s the reason, the degree is not JH degree!There are just borrowing their curicullum and some of their lecturers. So, it is not logical to charge the same as doing a degree from JH.
I’m wondering that how much do they actually “collaborate”?
They get lots lots of money from usmle courses…to enrol in the exams requires lots of money..its all about the money son..haha
with so much news on unemployed professionals…what about getting people to be policeman….
http://safercity.com.my
The optimum ratio of policemen to population recommended by the INTERPOL is 1:250 which means one policeman is responsible for looking after 250 residents. However, as of today in Petaling Jaya, the ratio stands at 1:470 which means one policeman is looking after 470 residents! Same goes to many cities in Klang Valley. This shows that we are in desperate need of more police to fight crime. The main objective of this petition campaign is to demand the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Home Minister to approve the application of auxiliary police force from MBPJ and other local councils in Klang Valley under the Pakatan Rakyat so that more police can be on the street to protect you. 100,000 signatures isn’t an easy goal, so thanks for doing your part; thanks for joining this fight. More police, Safer City!
…..I know this has nothing to do with the medical issues in this blog….but I am absolutely concern with the safety of all malaysians…
Bro, safety of Malaysian cannot be reduced by just increase the police force personnel. It involves the whole system of running the country. You need to have a good education system, good economy model so that people are educated and have good job and quality of life and not go to crime to meet the ends. More over why everyone want to become doctor? Because a doctor is perceived to have a better income than a police. People just go where the money is. If you pay RM 1.5k for a police, what do you think the number of people want to be police and what kind of quality of police will we get?
i was just trying to make a mockery of the job situation/market in malaysia…whichever that is said to be undersupplied, there seems a rise in the production in that industry leading to oversaturation…..
I am a Malaysian working in the US in the field of cardiology. Let me first disclose I am not currently or planning to be employed by Johns Hopkins or Perdana and am receiving no benefits of any form from them.
I have spoken the faculty at Hopkins regarding their effort at Perdana. Let me tell you this, the faculty sent by Hopkins at perdana is absolutely top notch. Most american hospitals and universities would be extremely lucky to have these academicians on their payroll. I am still very surprised they managed to convince their faculty to spend a chunk of their time teaching in a different country across the face of the earth.
Secondly, when you go to PUGSOM, you are going to PUGSOM, not JHU. The same goes for DUKE-NUS or any other international collaboration. It is not a con job. Poor doctor, Is there any way you can attract such robust talent in a newly opened medical school across the world without collaboration? Didnt think so.
Also Poor Doctor, it is absolutely rubbish to say that Johns Hopkins does not recognize Perdana University. Firstly, Johns Hopkins does not have jurisdiction to recognize any university, it is not a regulatory body. The ECFMG is given the task to recognize universities around the world for the US.
America has an open system whereby it recognizes essentially anyone who has graduated from a medical school and performed the USMLEs. Realistically, both graduates from either Harvard Medical School and University of Zimbabwe have to sit for the same exams to gain residency positions (USMLEs). While Perdana might not have had graduating batches yet, anyone who does the USMLE and gets recommendation letters from their top notch faculty http://perdanauniversity.edu.my/pugsom/faculty/) will have fantastic prospects of securing training in the US. Since these faculty members have such strong roots in academic medicine in the US, I am tempted to speculate the odds of securing coveted positions in the US are higher from PUGSOM than if you are graduating from most UK universities.
In summary, get your facts right and focus on whats important. Are you interested in having a good medical school staffed by competent faculty in your country or are you an armchair commentator spreading false facts in attempts to make useless point online?
“Let me tell you this, the faculty sent by Hopkins at perdana is absolutely top notch.” How you know this? Lol….R u sure ure even in US as a cardiologist?…hmmmmm..
“I am still very surprised they managed to convince their faculty to spend a chunk of their time teaching in a different country across the face of the earth. ”
Why not, if (and I am sure) the package deal being offered is worth their while? Besides, it would be contractual for only a certain time period, and why NOT spend some time in a tropical paradise, and be handsomely remunerated too? It’s a no-brainer, really.
Haha! Then it is still a con job trying to imply to the parents that their children can practice in US with the degree from PU. If they still need to take USMLE then why should they go to the overprice PU? Those “top notch” academicians are just paid to have ‘holiday’ here (they are not permanently posted here) so that they can jack up their credential and they can sell to these parent. What the Malaysian want is a degree recognized by the countries like USA and Australian so that they can go to these countries to work without further exams.
poor doctor…..dharma made a good point, US recognizes anyone with a medical degree as long as they pass all three steps of USMLE. I believe those academicians from JHU are here to make a difference to the medical education in malaysia (irregardless of the intention of the PU’s owner). I had a glance at the JHU academicians profile, they are indeed very respectable. When one is a top notch medical academician, irregardless how and what they get paid, he or she is expected to and will ultimately deliver excellent results. Why would they risk their reputation by giving half hearted effort in PU?
How many of the names that they have mentioned in their website are actually here ? I know many private colleges who will list down all the names they can think off but MOST of them are only visiting lecturers, some even doing 1 teaching a month!
sorry…i meant to say PUGSOM academician profile…
S207, hw u know they are InDEED respectable? Do u know that just passing usmle steps wont give u any place in usa?
if these lecturers come as a visiting lecturers (say for one year or two ), they do not really have to bother much what will happen after they have left.
Dr paga…I take your point on that.
Lolz…check their website yourself…don’t just bash them blindly….and yes, I know all about usmle as someone who wrote that exam before and also working in North America now…
Dr. why has MMR gone Chinese, I cannot log on to the English version.
I am unable to contact the relevant personnel, as I do not know the
language used here.
Dr Pagalavan, the Monash University Malaysia website indicates that accreditation by the Australian Medical Council is only until end of 2013 ! Would you know whether it will be extended ? Any particular reason to cause it not to be extended ? Isn’t this consideration the major attraction for students to study there ? Thanks for your reply !
The accreditation depends on Australian Medical Council and nothing to do with the university. They have applied for extension but not sure whether it will be granted. You must understand that Australian medical schools have all converted to graduate medical schools. Thus it would be unwise for AMC to continue Monash Malaysia Accreditation as it is still an undergraduate medical school. Furthermore, despite having the accreditation, the chances of you getting an internship post in Australia is rather slim.
All the new medical schools in Aus are graduate entry except JCU. Most of the older ones have converted to graduate entry, and I think Monash (Aus and Malaysia), Adelaide and Tasmania are the only older ones which have retained undergraduate entry. And the 2 NZ universities, which the AMC also accredits, are also undergraduate entry.
MOnash Australia is slowly phasing out their undergraduate program.
The undergraduate entry programmes currently are JCU, Newcastle, Newcastle/New England, UNSW, Monash, Utas, and U adelaide.
The move towards an MD award is more to emphasise the level of the qualification at AQF (Australian Qualification Framework) level 9, rather than the MBBS placed at Level 7. It makes no sense that a 6 year MBBS is at the same level as a 3 year BCom qualification, for example.
This was previously done by making medicine a graduate entry course. UNSW is now making a ground breaking move, to award a BMed MD instead of MBBS, starting from next year entry. Everything remains the same, graduate entry, and 6 years. I foresee other universities making similar move, as the other MDs are now 7 years (3 years 1st degree and 4 years MD).
After a more than 15 years experience with a dual pathway medical education, Australia realised the best students are still the cream from Year 12. Some universities try to tap this cream by having undergraduate entry double degree programmes, eg B Sc/MBBS of U Queensland.
I see this as more of an Australian phenomena, due to the AQF ranking system. Basically, a 6 year medical programme should be placed at Level 9 (Masters), but by virtue of the Bachelor’s degree, remains at Level 7. Some professions have already split their programmes to make the final award Level 9, eg Architecture and the 3+2 Bachelor/Master degree system.
Correction typo: UNSW new BMed MB is undergraduate entry, like the previous MBBS.
I am not aware that Monash is intending to change into graduate entry. They do have a Gippsland programme which is a 4 year graduate entry programme.
I believe they will be watching closely the outcome of UNSW’s new programme, and if that works out, I expect many more Universities will be going that direction too. Based on the AQF guideline, a 5 year undergraduate entry medical programme like Monash and Utas can qualify for Level 9 too.
Eratum: On further reading, the minimum period to qualify for a AQF Level 9 ranking for a integrated Bachelor/MD programme is 6 years. Therefore, if Monash, Newcastle and Utas wants to convert, they will need to expand their programme to 6 years. Utas had only just shrunk their programme from 6 to 5 years some 5 year ago. JCU and Adelaide can convert without problem.
Monash use to have a 6 year program till 2005
All accreditation given by a medical council is for a certain period, usually for 3 or 5 years, and possibly less if something needs to be rectified and reviewed.
Not for MMC!
Recognition by AMC is always close ended, subjected to periodic reviews, so I don’t think that by itself is an issue.
However, I think that ‘consideration’ is only an attraction for uninformed students and parents. The Internship problem in Australia persist, and again, the majority of International students in Australia have not been matched to an Intern job next year. This year, only a few from Sunway got jobs in Australia. There is now a rural Internship programme, for onshore international students who failed to get a match and wants to stay on in Australia. This is NOT open to Sunway students. I wonder how many of this graduating batch have been offered jobs in Australia.
I was informed less than 5
Dr, I am interested to know what you think about the whole HELP University-Kim Jong Un issue.
poor doctor, use common sense and be realistic.
if americans who graduate from their own medical school here in the US cant work here without the USMLEs, why on earth should anyone graduating from any other medical school in the world expect to work in the US without USMLEs?
by the way, some of the JHU faculty are posted in Perdana permanently, although very few and only in the very high up positions. most of them are not posted permanently- there are 2 clear reasons that come to mind (among many):
1) most of these guys are very active in basic science research. they are clinician scientists. their research is also very heavily funded from the NIH (grants are not uncommonly in the millions). to move to malaysia permanently would mean giving all this up. malaysia does not have the infrastructure, money or ancillary talent to make this feasible for them. their research careers would be over and this is essentially career suicide. not many would come.
2) it is not attractive to move your whole family permanently to malaysia from the US from the perspective of an american physician. this whole notion of a tropica paradise is really from the perspective person looking for a 2 week holiday, not to relocate permanently.
3) even if they wanted, malaysian medical schools cant afford to have them here permanently throughout the year. Academic centers, and especially JHU, pay their doctors among the lowest in the US – by low, it is still somewhere between 200 – 400k USD / yr (excluding research grant funding). If you want someone to relocate to malaysia for the whole year, you have to pay them more than that. they probably wont move for the same or lesser salary, not when it means your family moves, and your research career takes a major hit. there is no medical school in malaysia that can pay all their faculty that kind of money. As an example, The govt of Abu Dhabi opened a Cleveland Clinic affiliated hospital, and the only way they could get cleveland clinic faculty to relocate to Abu dhabi throughout the year was to pay them top dollar – in the tune of 600k – 1m USD/yr without taxes. That cant happen in Malaysian medical schools – not even at a 250k ringgit/year school fees.
Its very easy to be an armchair critic and come up with stupid non-feasible comments. My point is, this collaboration will be the closest thing malaysians have of having top notch Hopkins faculty contributing to a Malaysian medical school.
I have read in this blog comments in the past that Malaysians seem to not like it when burmese doctors who barely speak english come to malaysia to teach in the medical schools. I hjave nothing against them and I am sure some of them are even better than some of the teachers in Malaysia. however, now when you have Hopkins faculty teaching in Malaysia, there still seems to be a lot of complaints. Perhaps some people will continue to complain without knowing the facts, or having any real reason to. Some are perhaps too jaded and negative to see things for what they are. .
The issue some take here, is the way PU markets itself, and the somewhat mis-information about working in the USA.
The implication is that, graduates will be able to work in the US, of course after the USMLE exams, perhaps a ‘speciality’ of PU due to its link with JH. However, there is nothing special about PU and USMLE, any medical school listed in the Faimer IMED directory, and hence recognised by ECFMG can sit for the exam. Indeed, many IPTS here are already officially or unofficially presenting their students for the exam.
That would be like the other IPTS med schools saying their graduates can work in UK and Australia, and in small print saying after passing the PLAB and AMC exams respectively. The information is not incorrect, but can often give rise to misunderstanding amongst students and parents.
Whatever “top notch” academics they send over here is just a temporary measure to start off the medical school. As you have rightfully mentioned, no one is going to stay here when they can do better in their home campus, for research and funds.
The Malaysian healthcare system is different compared to US. That’s the reason, the curriculum will not be suitable for Malaysian context. The academics on the other hand do not know anything about our system. Researchers are researchers and clinicians are clinicians! PU promised a lot when they first started which we all know is pure marketing gimmicks. This type of joint ventures has happened before in many field and eventually, it will just become another Malaysian medical school with no international recognition.
I agree with you points but PU must do one thing which is they must state very clearly that after graduation from PU, their degree WOULD NOT enable the graduates to work in USA without taking further qualification examination. This is the same tactic used by some medical schools / agents which trick the parent to sent their children to Schedule II medical schools and later found out that they can only practice as doctor in Malaysia after the MQA exams.
This is the pathetic reality of Malaysia. Most of them who go to medical schools which collaborate with foreign universities are with the intention to work in those countries (UK, US and Australia). The NuMed University students even have a petition asking our PM to ask the Australian PM to provide them vacancies to work in Australia. Imagine that asking PM to beg jobs for them in a foreign country! If you need the top notch medical schools in the world to help raise the standard in Malaysia, this should not be profit oriented and should not be done by private entity. It should be done with public medical school which have the complete facilities for a proper medical school.
It’s not NuMed but Australian uni grads
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64644
Agents make a good income
Dear Dr. My daughter is taking bio med science in the UM and now in her 3rd year. She wants to pursue medicine after this. Is there any advice for her, since it is an overflow of doctors here in malaysia (i was told). Thank you.
For a start, she can spend some time reading this blog from A to Z to know what medicine is all about.
If you read this blog, there are enough evidence to say that there will be oversupply of doctors by 2017. The public universities have already started to reduce their number of intakes as of this year. The signs are there.
Hey Doc, well, I am sixteen this year and I think I should make my mind at this point of time. I have two plans in my mind right now. Firstly, next year I might be offered a scholarship by Petronas to pursue my tertiary education in a field that they would offer (engineering,economics etc) since the company has agreed to sponsor the top scoring students in my school. I thought of chemical engineering/petroleum engineering. The second choice of mine is to become a doctor since I have both passion & opportunity. If i chose medicine, I would have to take sit for my SPM in 2014 and take up a 8 month gov foundation program which allows me to be eligible for the August 2014 UKM medicine intake. Firstly, i have deep interest in all Science subjects and my scores are mostly >95. I guess I would not face any problems in completing my studies. However, my aim in my career is to earn a LOT of money. I need your opinion about it. My parents are very open about this matter and they just want me to do something I want. If I take up the offer from Petronas, I would earn myself a chance to study in the US or Australia while for medicine, my only option would be UKM/UM. With Petronas, I am also guaranteed a job and I avoid competitions from many fresh graduates frm local Unis including U.Teknologi Petronas. As a non-Bumi, getting an opportunity to work with Petronas is something great since the company only recruits the best non- Bumis & they are often given high posts as most of them seem to be more capable. What do you think Doc? I am really confused right now and I need to apply for the universities and if everything goes well, I stand a chance to get an admission in the US unis for Fall 2014 intake (august/september). I also calculated the number of years I would take up to become an engineer or a doctor. I am capable of graduating from an Engineering school in US when I am 21yrs old. While to be a doctor. I might be 23\24 yrs old. Not much a difference but the basic pay for a fresh engineer graduate in Petronas is abt 4-5K. I am not sure abt a doctor’s basic salary as a fresh graduate. Most of my family members who are doctors & actuaries asked me to take up engineering but I am still confused.
If I were you or if you were my child, I would suggest you go for petronas scholarship. Not only you will be able to study in a reputable university overseas, a guaranteed job etc but you will also be able to get a job anywhere in this world . Migrating will also be a much easier thing to do, if you do intend.
As for medicine, even getting into UM and UKM is not guaranteed as the public universities are never transparent and they have also started to reduce their number of intakes. Furthermore their degree is NOT recognised elsewhere except Singapore.
doctor, i am having a serious problem as I have to decide which course I have to take really soon. I have passion for medicine and also Biology. If I do take Biology, I will be doing it up to Master’s level and I will like to know some job prospects in the future for this field. If you were to put yourself within my shoes, which path would you choose? I know it’s rather irrelevant to ask you this question as you may not be really concerned about this field. But I will like to have your opinion.
Do what you are interested. Biology is a broad field. You can go into research work, become a teacher or become a lecturer.
hi. dr.paga. knowing that u work before at Monash University Malaysia. I just want to ask whether Monash University sponsor excellent biomedical science students to do their post graduate medicine overseas like our local university?
also do you know any private institutions who do that?
I don’t think so. Generally private universities don’t do that.