The statement “Housemen need to practise their specialties at district level as there is a lack of specialists in district hospitals,” he said after witnessing the signing of three Memoranda of Agreement between the ministry and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) here, yesterday.” really made my day!!

If what the reporter has written is the truth, then I am speechless, in thinking what type of Health Minister this country has! Since when housemen became specialist and can provide specialist services in district hospitals? We already have some below par medical officers mismanaging patients in these hospitals without supervision and now we are going to let Housemen to manage this patients? As I said earlier, our current DG is just a puppet to the politicians. Our previous DG had better guts to say NO but was thrown out! I will let the email below to say the rest:

Hi Doc,

The muppets at MOH have done it again! (see linked article above) How do they solve the glut of HOs? Simply create more HO jobs! MOH have just accredited 22 district hospitals to complement the 41 hospitals where housemanship can already be done. The problem is, these 22 district hospitals do not have enough specialists! Where are they going to get them from? You can hire 500 from Pakistan/Bangladesh/Egypt but there are no facilities at these hospitals for specialist services (e.g. theatres, beds, radiological equipment, etc).

Liow Tiong Lai justifies it like this: “Housemen need to practise (sic) their specialties at district level as there is a lack of specialists in district hospitals”. IS HE MAD? How can they ‘practice their specialties’ when there are no specialists to supervise these house officers? Are the MOs going to supervise them? It will be a case of the blind leading the blind.

I am seriously at a loss for words. There is no doubt that many district hospitals in Malaysia should be upgraded to allow specialists to practice there. But this cannot practically happen overnight. Bed spaces and operating theatres do not magically manifest themselves. It takes months to years to plan service upgrades. Once all that is in place, especially the specialists themselves, then HOs can work there. Problem is, the govt has already shot themselves in the foot by allowing all these med schools to mushroom and also sponsoring hundreds of students to med schools overseas (1,000 to Egypt alone each year).

One more thing: LTL mentioned that the current capacity is 6500 housemen, increasing to nearly 10,000 with these district hospitals. Personally, I don’t believe that number because it probably includes departments with 60-100 house officers when there should be only 20-30. Even if we accept his figure, the number of house officers per year is conservatively projected to be 6,000-7,000 by 2014, which means we will need 12,000-14,000 houseman places. Good luck.

p.s. Feel free to post my rant on your blog

63 hospitals to train housemen

By QISHIN TARIQ
qishin.tariq@thestar.com.my

 

KAJANG: A total of 63 hospitals are now available to universities as a training ground for medical students, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

The ministry has added 22 district government hospitals to complement the 41 hospitals currently hosting housemen undergoing practical training.

Liow said the 63 hospitals would be able to host nearly 10,000 housemen, up from the current capacity of 6,500 housemen.

“The chosen hospitals will be able to give better service with the addition of more staff and in return provide facilities to train medical students.

 Good practice: Utar nursing lecturer Liew Siew Fun giving a briefing to Liow along with others during his visit in Kajang yesterday.

“Housemen need to practise their specialties at district level as there is a lack of specialists in district hospitals,” he said after witnessing the signing of three Memoranda of Agreement between the ministry and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) here, yesterday.

The agreements would allow Utar degree students in nursing, physiotherapy, biomedical science, biochemistry and microbiology to be placed at one of 13 government hospitals or eight health clinics.

Meanwhile, Liow said the Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) Bill would not be postponed any further as all the relevant parties, including TCM associations and practitioners, had been consulted.

He said once the bill was passed, the industry would be registered under a council and regulated, just like doctors.

“Practitioners can be held liable if they do not give proper treatment to their patients,” said Liow, adding that the Act would also cut down on fly-by-night TCM practitioners.

Ayurvedic, homeopathic and traditional Malay medicine practitioners would also be regulated under the Act.

Liow said the Act would not only regulate and enforce the industry but also allow the ministry to officially fund research for evidence-based TCM treatment.