The last I wrote an article with the title above was in February 2014. Since then many new developments are taking place behind the doors. ON 9th June 2014, an article appeared in the Star regarding the limited number of post available for graduates (see below). This is a fact and the government has finally come to terms with it. They finally realised that they had approved too many medical schools over a short period of time. I had also written what transpired during the last MMA AGM held end of last month, over HERE. Prof Adeeba is the Dean of UM and also a MMC council member. Thus she knows exactly what she is talking about. She has also reiterated the need for a common entry exam to decide who will get employment and who will not. A committee has already been formed between MMC and MOH to decide on this as well as the implementation date. She also suggested that the number of medical students and programs should be reduced by a staggering 70% !!! Oh my, didn’t I ring the bell almost 8 years ago?
Now, let’s look at the latest MMC Annual Report for 2013 over HERE. I think everyone should read this report. The number of new graduates registered for housemanship for 2013 was a staggering 4472, a 42% increase from 2009. Local graduates contributed about 60% of the total graduates. It was also noted in the report that more and more foreign graduates are returning back to the country for Housemanship due to limited job opportunities in other countries. I had also mentioned this several times before. The number of NEW MOs has also increased tremendously in tandem with the increase in housemen. It increased from 2592 in 2010 to 3754 in 2013, a 45% increase (including those returning after housemanship overseas).
REMEMBER: there are still 20 medical colleges which are yet to produce any graduates ! In page 62 of the report, these 20 medical programs have not been accredited as of 31/12/2013. Imagine what the number of graduates will be when ALL these medical colleges starts to produce graduates. Something that many people never believed would happen, will happen in this country : jobless doctors!
It is also interesting to note that the number of APC issued to practising doctors has increased from 24 783 in 2011 to 30 057 in 2013 (page 33), a 20% increase in 2 years. However, the increase in the number of doctors in private sector is only 927 compared to 4347 in public sector between the years mentioned. The MMC has reported that more doctors are now staying back in government sector. These again will make the number of available post for new doctors very much limited in public sector. Due to declining income of private doctors with increasing competitiveness, less and fewer doctors are resigning from civil service. A random survey done by MMA showed that almost 70% of General Practitioners are earning a net income of below RM 7K, despite working 11 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Even in UK, many graduates are finding their salaries declining year by year. An interesting article over HERE (see below), says that medicine and dentistry are some of the fields that are worst affected. Whenever the supply exceeds demand, salaries will go down and job opportunities will decline. The same will happen to our civil service in the future when our government reduces some of the allowances to doctors such as Critical Allowance which is not a permanent allowance. The government will not be able to give job to everyone due to the financial implications.
Finally, another interesting phenomenon was the fact that more and more doctors are becoming sick! A total of 334 cases were referred to the Medical review Panel in 2013, compared to 49 cases in 2009. The MMC has to form another committee to handle these cases, known as Fitness to Practise committee. If you look at page 51, you will be shocked to see the type of cases being investigated. These could be only the tip of the iceberg! That’s the reason why I keep saying that you should never do medicine for wrong reasons. Parents should also stop forcing their children to do medicine. From my friends in psychiatric department, the most common cause for housemen and doctors being referred to their department is due to depression. And the reasons for depression is always “doing medicine for wrong reasons” and ” parents told to do” !
Well, the writing is on the wall. It is up to the readers to ponder upon the future that this country is heading due to poor human resource planning. The MMLE committee has been formed in MMC (Page 24) and has already conducted 2 meetings and has submitted proposals.
Meanwhile, it’s time to watch Germany vs Portugal in World Cup 2014………. it’s raining goals in this World Cup……………..
OLA OLE Brazil……………………..
Limited training slots available for medical grads
BY LOH FOON FONG
PETALING JAYA: Medical students who slogged through their five-year year programme may just find that places are limited in the training hospitals.
Senior doctors foresee that a selection process might be imposed on medical graduates in the near future in view of the high number of 5,000 graduating each year.
Students may stand a better chance of getting into the limited number of training hospitals as housemen if they graduate from better ranking schools.
Training hospitals, where graduates planning to practise locally have to undergo housemanship, could only cope with about 3,000 new housemen each year.
Healthcare sources said that about 4,000 to 5,000 medical students would graduate annually, with more than half returning from overseas.
While those graduating from local universities, especially public universities, and established overseas universities have fewer issues entering the healthcare system, those graduating from foreign universities with a poor track record might face difficulties.
Universiti Malaya Medical Faculty dean Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman (pic) said the Malaysian Medical Council was considering introducing a common licensing examination for all graduates to ensure that only those with adequate training were given positions in these hospitals.
“There may not be enough houseman and medical officer posts. The Health Ministry may select those from schools with a proven track record,” she said.
A source said training hospitals in the Klang Valley, for instance, were accredited with multiple private medical schools, as well as some public universities, resulting in doctors being overstretched and too many students practising on patients.
He said the Cabinet should reduce the number of programmes and the number of students entering local medical schools by 70%.
Dr Adeeba said funding bodies too need to be selective and send students only to better ranking schools.
“My concern is that our top students are being sent abroad to universities of much lesser ranking than local medical schools,” she said.
Dr Adeeba said that while the various authorities need to do proper human resource planning, parents should wake up to the fact that there would not be adequate posts for doctors in government hospitals and hence, should not push their children into studying medicine if they did not have the aptitude for it.
She cited a number of students who struggled with the demands of the five-year programme, which they had no interest in.
A senior doctor, who declined to be named, said the situation would only get worse each year if nothing was done.
The Cabinet, he said, should start capping the number of students entering medical schools.
Graduate salaries tumble in the UK
Published: 13 June 2014 | Updated: 13 June 2014 5:14 PM
The United Kingdom has always been a lucrative study destination for students all over the world including those from Malaysia. Having some of the best universities in the world including the likes of Oxford and Cambridge, there are immense opportunities for employment not only in the UK but elsewhere in the world including the home countries of students.
Hence, students have been opting for UK as a popular study destination but as of late, it has been found that studying abroad might not be as lucrative as it used to be. So let us find out what the latest trends are and the possible reasons behind these trends.
Rising cost of education
The cost of education in the UK has been rising steadily and even in the current year, expert projections estimate a hike of about 2% where the current average cost of a degree stands at 8, 647 pounds (RM47, 203) per year.
This basically means that the average cost of a typical 3-year undergraduate course will stand somewhere in the region of approximately 26, 000 pounds (RM141, 932).
Moreover, although there are provisions for loans, it has been reported that the average cost of repayments over time, especially for students in lower income jobs where they pay-off their loans slowly, could amount to as much as 100, 000 pounds over a period of 30 years after which the loans would be waived off.
Rising costs Vs Diminishing returns
If students are still attracted to studying in UK universities despite the spiralling costs, there is only hope for a better and much more secure future where students can look to gain back more than what they have spent in the long-term. However, the statistics reveal otherwise.
A study conducted by Complete University Guide showed that in the United Kingdom, graduate starting salaries have plummeted by a huge margin of 11% in the five-year period for which the study was conducted namely between 2007 to 2012.
This is not a new trend. The past 5 years have shown a continual drop in salaries, albeit at a much slower rate. In fact, the rate of decline was just 4% in the period between 2002 and 2007.
Reasons for the decline
Several reasons can be cited for such a decline and some of the most prominent ones are the rise in competition between graduates and the increasing number of graduates that are available for certain jobs.
With the abundant supply of graduates, employers do not have much incentive in raising the salaries. Rising inflation is another cause which erodes minor salary hikes.
The decline in the starting salary of graduates is not uniform, but varies across different sectors and segments.
For example, while the steepest decline in starting salaries can be seen in fields such as medicine and dentistry, other areas were able to keep up with the inflation rate, such as in library science and materials technology.
Advice for students
Students could certainly be perplexed by the state of affairs and get worried as to what steps they should take next – whether or not they should pursue an education from countries like the UK, spending so much time and at a high expense.
There is no definite solution and a decision such as this depends on many factors. Firstly, students need to see if the profession or area of study they wish to pursue has had a steady salary history as compared to elsewhere in the world. Students would also need to accommodate their personal financial circumstances and consider if the costs of such a degree is feasible.
There is no doubt that UK universities have world-class infrastructures, teaching facilities and students can certainly get a lot of exposure from students who are from different parts of the world.
Research also states that despite all odds, a person with a degree from a country with a prominent history in education – like the UK – certainly has advantage over his or her counterparts.
Hence, one should certainly take advantage of the available opportunities while taking heed of the factors mentioned in this article. – June 13, 2014.
* This article is courtesy of easyuni.com
– See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/features/article/graduate-salaries-tumble-in-the-uk#sthash.uEw4oR0h.dpuf
Pagalavan's Avatar 
Now the only way for GP is to embrace 1care. Forget about being noble. Forget about who is the crony for the coffer. Forget about the financial leakage. If the GP’s want to survive. Let’s unite and work with the govt for a better and steadier future. For those who still think they want to act noble, please stay aside and let the poor GP’s continue to have their rice bowls secured. The fraternity is split because of individual greed and personal agenda – well I don’t blame that – but please do not go against 1care, which will at least let the GP’s survive. The rakyat may suffer with the extra deduction from their salaries, but then if that’s the case the GP’s are protecting, then stop ranting about the tough life ahead, and stop complaining of how the 1M clinic or DS is affecting your business.
First and foremost, it’ll be the best move to filter out the majority of HO job applicants, thus solving much of the problem(when can’t save… just amputate).
I just hope that the council will take into consideration the other options available(allowing the already well equipped hospitals to be teaching hospitals and sending more MO and specialists there if they are willing) and the consequences if hasty decisions are made(please learn from earlier mistakes).
Also, it will be outright unfair to those who are already taking medicine, learning from universities acknowledged by MMC in the first place, then bashed for producing incompetent students.
The responsibility should not be on the graduates alone but also on the higher ups who permits all these happenings.
Graduates of 5-6 years from foreign universities expected to be well prepared for MMLE is POSSIBLE if they are given the heads up before taking the course which will determine their future.(at least only students who are willing to take up another bias and edu-corrupted challenge will go ahead with the course)
Therefore, the MMLE in plan should be applicable only to future medical students or at least 3rd year medical students.
Learning and the process of acquiring knowledge is long term and for the best results, students should be given the chance to prepare. Especially foreign universities students whom are learning in a different teaching environment and using different materials.
Don’t you agree Dr.Pagavalan?
MMLE is basically equivalent to a final year exam. The only problem is that each university have their own program and curriculum. Generally, most entrance exams in other countries only test your basic medical knowledge in becoming a housemen.
Do you really need 2 to 3 years to prepare yourself for a licensing exam?
One hardly hear about problems with “foreign universities students” till the last decade or so. It’s time to differentiate between the “foreign” universities/countries.
Hi, Dr.
I wonder which course your children are taking or going to take?Medicine too?or others?
I will let my children to decide BUT I will never force or even direct them to do medicine. So far, both my sons are not interested in medicine!
So interesting when a true post like this one can make your adrenaline level up. I should have read this long before my exam started. sigh*
70% of GP earn less that 7k? I have doubt on this as i saw so many GP in pg still making good money
Never look at just a few GPs in a major town! Look at many of the newer GPs over the last few years.
Btw doc, why can’t the govt add more teaching hospital? Or a lane for those who wants focusing on tech development. Or anything else. I think if we are not going to further in attending patient in hospital maybe we can go for enhancing the national’s research. Or this is a not a good idea?
You can’t just add teaching hospital as you need specialist in every speciality. Where are you going to find the specialist? Most will leave to private sector for “better” money.
Unfortunately, Malaysia do not promote research and very minimal budget is allocated for research. They do have a tach development unit in KL.
Then the govt should really focus on increasing the number of specialty training to accommodate the demand. Train more specialists so they can later teach and train the future med students. Should provide more budget for this, not for the tourism and entertainment purpose.This should be the long-term plan. Not just kicking out a bunch of new graduates only because of the acute excess of HO-to-be! Make a better plan lahh. This last minute solution is impractical. The process of oversupply in med graduates take years to develop, so how can you suddenly cut them all out in a year or two? I mean, you have to have both the emergency and long-term plans laid out.
Yes of course but you can’t simply increase the speciality training as you need specialist consultants to train more specialist. Unfortunately most specialist are in private sector!
You get the government you vote for! In Malaysia racial politics is more important than anything else!
One of the reasons for rising application to enter medical school is because of overconfident. For those who score A+ in SPM Science subjects, or 4.00 in any pre-U, I have no comment, they have the basic qualities. But nowadays I can see many of those (just barely reach the minimum requirements) are choosing medicine carrier.
Medicine is one of the toughest course in the world, please be both mentally and physically prepared before you choose this carrier, or else you’ll end up losing your time and money. Know your strength and weakness. Don’t simply follow the true brilliant students, you’ll suffer.
Devote your fullest passion to the medicine, money is only the by-product. Never think the other way round, this will torture the patients and their family.
I don’t think it is overconfidence. It is more for glamour and job security
This psychology led to huge earnings of private medical school. The private institution seldom care about the academic performance (if fail, repeat and pay), they only concern about the students’ ability to pay their course fees. So now this medicine career is more about quantity, not quality.
It is a BUSINESS!! Medical education should never be commercialised.
Licensing exams will be, I presume, for those who have yet to be fully registered. But what about those poor quality doctors who are now registered and working inside the health system. How do we expunge those? It is shocking that I see medical students with very poor spm grades graduating with medical qualifications. They are certainly not late bloomers. Ask them anything on medicine and they hardly know anything. I would even say their qualifications are a sham. On the other hand, their presence in the healh system means they will be depriving those good medical graduates from entering the system. What a waste of human resource.
That’s the main problem with Malaysian education and civil service system.
SPM is nothing ! You can’t judge wether someone is fit or not to do medicine based on SPM result. My SPM result was average, but today i am a surgeon.
Well, there is a big difference between SPM standard of your time and now… I admit the SPM level of yours are much difficult than present. Till now, many syllabus were cut off, this indirectly increase the ease to score A+. Additionally, the Ministry of Education has been using graphical method to standardize the grade, so the grades do not really show the standard of a student. I have few juniors who never scored above 60 in Biology, but in SPM appeared to be A. Problem?
Yes, SPM results should not be used but SPM then and SPM now are two different set of exams. The joke of the town now is that a “B” in SPM now is equivalent to “Bodoh”! I have had teachers who told me that students who he thought will not even get a C for a subject, ended up getting an A!
However, SPM should not be used as an entrance exam. It should be a standardised Pre-U course. Unfortunately, this is where our education system got messed up with ALL the dubious foundation courses etc.
aipokov@hotmail.com,
Where did you get your medical degree and surgical training?
My medical degree is from University Malaya and my surgical training is done locally here. However, I got only 2 As in SPM, i.e. BM and Maths. The rest all B3 and B4. Anyway, I did much better in my Asasi with CGPA 3.40. So you can’t really base on SPM results to study medicine.
Yup but with so many dubious founda courses out there, MMC do not have any choice than to look at the only last standardised exam that the students take aka SPM. BTW, based on MMC criteria, you still qualify!
Wah, I wonder what race you are.
Haha so unfair. I got 11a1s in spm and i didnt get pasum. I wanted to medicine in um actually but thank goodness jpa offered me uk
Pls do not discuss about racial matter here.
Unfortunately, it is unavoidable in Malaysia!
I have straight A+ and 4.00, but can’t even get an UM interview offer……..
with 2As and 3.40, you boleh, congrats……….
Selection bias will never disappear in Malaysia due to government policies. the same goes to Master’s selection. Having a degree and calling yourself a doctor/ specialist does not mean you are good. With the current standard of education, even Master’s seem to be having almost 100% passing rate!!
University Malaya’s Asasi or Foundation in Science program is also better known as PASUM. It’s only reserved for bumiputra. Aipokov, did you do your asasi in PASUM?
Doctor, thank you so much for this blog, it provides many useful information. I understand that it is becoming very competitive, thus choosing a good and reputable medical school is indeed important. I would like to seek your advice.
(Excluding those top public uni such as USM, UM and UKM) Is it better to choose public uni like UPM, UNIMAS etc..OR private uni like NUMed?
Thank you.
Public uni is still preferred.
Seem that over the years despite article after article you wrote people still do not understand what is doing medicine all about! I am in charge of HO in my hospital, like you people still think wearing a white coat is like working in heaven. Reality check when they realised sometime the job is not what they expected, most them realised the journey is a never ending one. There will be exams after exams. In fact a good number of them came and tell me they plan to do admin in some state/federal office after they finish HO. Worse still I receive call from parents telling me their kids are not coming to work!
LOL@parents! I hope you gave them some choice words in rebuttal.
Everybody still leaving in their dream world and get carried away with TV programme. Sitcoms like House, Greys anatomy etc make medicine look like a job where you talk about one case the whole day while drinking coffee!
Well, medical graduates goes direct into housemanship and compulsory service, both of which are in government service. Whether you are among the top STPM students in good universities locally or an average student meeting the minimum requirements in dubious universities locally or abroad, the pay is still the same in government service. As it is, if you opt for government service, not likely you be asked to leave at the moment even if your competency is questionable. I may even be promoted faster if I play the right game and my networking and social skills are better than those geniuses.
If I am of average ability, why would I choose a university where I would struggle and may repeat and waste financial resources rather than opting for one where my chances of graduating are almost guaranteed
An average student will not even be able to get into these established universities! That’s why I support MMLE to give job to those who really qualify as a doctor! I also support that doctors job should be given on contact basis so that we can kick out the incompetent ones.
Dr, instead of just passing the medical exam, is it possible to get first class honor in medicine? Thanks in advance.
Generally most universities do not do that
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/06/21/Waiting-list-for-housemen-positions-at-public-hospitals/
Particularly keen about pharmacy in au, how is the situation going to be in the next decade where the current batch is joining this field? And is the intern crisis in au going to persist till the next decade? But for 2013, a last-minute deal is clinched to provide internship for the desperate img from au uni right? Is the situation going to worsen or improve for the coming 7 to eight yrs or beyond ? These are the burning questions of those who want to be dr in au and not wasting the money ( when internship not provided)……And if possible could you just tell more about pharmacy in au, is it that bad and immobile as med? And (this is outside the scope) what other jobs than med to get overseas migrate and employable, (econ,eng rumoured to be good) since you are a fountain of knowledge =)
The internship situation in Australia will get worst over the next few years when most of their new medical schools produces their graduates.
I am not very sure about pharmacy situation in Australia.
Any other job, if you do it in Australia, should not have any problem getting a job there.
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8647 pounds a year in UK universities is definitely untrue. Most UK universities charge 9000pounds per year on people from EU union. Scottish universities charge about 2000 pounds on Scottish students. Whereas for international students for e.g. Malaysian students, they usually charge at least 16000 pounds depending on what course you are doing. Imperial College London for example, charge around 25000 pounds on non-medicine international students a year, in contrast with the 26000 pounds for 3 years. If you are an international student and you aredoing medicine, you will be charged more obviously. Imperial for instant i believe is more than 30000 pounds a year.
Greetings, I’m a victim. To study medicine in malaysia public universities, around 80% medical students are chosen from malays and Bumiputeras (above cgpa 3.00), for the rest are chosen randomly from chinese and indians with straight As and 4.00. I’m sick…. Why need to sacrifice the talented? Don’t our country want to improve?
Welcome to The real world in Malaysia. nothing you can do other than becoming a voter and vote!
Dont blame the public universities if you dont get a place. The very fact that most of the places are given to Malays is to balance the number of places available in private universities. In the olden days, if you dont get a place in the public universities, you have to go overseas and its very very difficult to get a place.
You can opt for the private unis here though the fee is much higher. But you have PTPTN to help you on the way.
In years to come, there will be much lesser students opting for public unis when the standards keep dropping. What is happening in the primary schools now will happen in the public unis in years to come.
This is a paradox. Why we (indians and chinese) have to suffer from high debt and loan payments even though we have perfect results? And nowadays still prioritize the HO from public unis graduates, we spend so much effort and money and yet so much uncertainties. You sound like a bed of rose for everyone to study in private unis, ptptn only cover maximally rm150k, the rest of the fees? Self pay. I know you are rich. Be Quiet and don’t comment rubbish.
While I agree on your last statement but I do not agree with your first statement. The is no such thing as balance between private and public. Malays also do take a big junk of the places in private medical universities via MARA, JPA and Majlis Agama scholarship. The reason why you see many non-Malays in private sector is because they got no choice when they are rejected by local public universities.
This statement is totally racist…to get into medic in ipta u need to get 4 flat…that is 10 years ago…
10 years ago…lots of my friend cant even do medic in public uni unless score 4 flat…that is 10 years ago…got no priority for malay to do medic in 2004..
The priority comes via matriculation. Most non Malays enter public uni via STPM where as BUmis enter via Matriculation. Selection bias comes via the Pre U courses.
K, it’s true for a racist policy by a racist government. In 2013, there’re 3,000+ 4-flat Matrikulasi students vs 400+ 4-flat STPM students. Matrikulasi is 1 year and STPM is 2 years. I don’t have to tell you the standards of both. If those matrikulasi students were to place in STPM, 90% won’t score 4-flat.
Dr, I really have passion to study medicine even after I realised all the uncertainties in future. So I study very hard and gratefully I got straight A+ in SPM and 4.00 in matriculation. But since I’m from very poor family and not holding JPA bursary, I can’t afford to study in private universities. (Disappointingly I failed to enrol in public unis) So, can you give me a few suggestions so I can fulfil my dream? Thanks.
UPU result is out? Unfortunately, without money, you can’t seem to be able to do medicine in Malaysia. You can still try taking PTPTN loan and try some smaller universities like UTAR etc. However, taking huge loans to do medicine is NOT a good idea.
Dreamer….i am a parent with 2 young doctors….who had PASSIONS too. Now they are HO & MO….and they regret so much choosing medicine.
B4 the started (and that was 7 yrs ago whe there was still a shortage of doctors)…, a few doctors advised them against doing medicine…but they were too naive to dismiss the advise.
Consider it a blessing in disguise that u cant afford to do medicine privately.
Better you listen to Dr Pag. and scrape the idea of doing medicine… ANYTHING BUT MEDICINE.
if you choose to do medicine…esp in Malaysia….you will be painting yourself to a corner…with no way out. God Bless You.
Dreamer, I don’t know which SPM year you’re in but according to KPM Bursary Program, all 9A+ students from SPM 2011 and onwards are authomatically given scholarship in pre university and university level. So there is no reason why you’re not offered JPA scholarship unless you have less than 9A+.
I don’t think it is given anymore!
Government still continues the KPM Bursary Program but the required results for its pre-university programs i.e. A-level, IB, Matrikulasi and Asasi have increased from CGPA 3.50 (students of SPM 2011 & 2012) to 3.75 (students of SPM 2013 and onwards). However, required result for STPM remains unchanged at CGPA 3.50.
where is the link of …………………
” A random survey done by MMA showed that almost 70% of General Practitioners are earning a net income of below RM 7K, despite working 11 hours a day, 7 days a week. ”
Thanks
No link but was mentioned during the MMA AGM last month.
Very likely MMLE might be pushed to post GE14?
well, likely it can only be implemented after 2016 when the post get filled completely. A lot of planning to do and a lot of work for MMC
[…] not provide you with a job upon your return as the number of post will be limited OR there may be a common entrance exam. Let’s wait and see what […]