Health Ministry denies bias for parallel pathway, says 96pc of spending is on local medical Master's programmes

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — The Health Ministry has denied today any bias towards the parallel pathway programme, saying the government has spent only a miniscule amount of funding on it compared to other local tertiary programmes.

Its minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said Putrajaya has in the past five years spent a total of RM352.3 million on medical Master’s degree programmes offered by local higher education institutions, compared to just RM13 million for the parallel pathway programme.

“You can count yourself, 96 per cent of RM365.1 spent for masters programmes offered by local universities and only 4 per cent for parallel pathway,” Dzulkely told a briefing session for the media at the Parliament building here.

He was responding to public critics that the government has been biased in the past for placing focus on parallel pathway programmes.

Explaining further, the ministry’s Medical Development Division deputy director Dr Hirman Ismail said there are far more programmes offered under the Master’s programmes compared to parallel pathway.

“The number of local graduates is much more than graduates abroad, and there are more masters programmes offered by public universities — 120 — while only 14 under the parallel pathway programme,” Dr Hirman, who was also present at the briefing, said.

According to the division’s director, Datuk Dr Mohd Azman Yacob, the government has spent RM142 million on the masters programmes so far this year compared to merely RM10 million on parallel pathway programmes.

Earlier today, the amendments for Medical Act 1971 or Act 50 was tabled for the first reading in Parliament.

The Medical (Amendment) Bill 2024, according to Dzulkelfy, is aimed to resolve issues surrounding the parallel pathway, at the same time to ensure that the country has sufficient specialists generated through the masters and also parallel pathway programmes in the future.

The proposed amendments will also include changes in composition of the members in the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), whereby the number of appointed members from higher education institutions will be reduced from nine to five members, and to increase representation from the public sectors from three to seven.

“If you look at the numbers of doctors between universities and public services, the ratio is appropriate with those numbers.

“And of course the Ministry of Health is a custodian for health in the country, we should have (higher number of representation),” Dr Hirman said.