Gerakan supported the Health Ministry’s suggestion of imposing a five-year moratorium on medical programmes to solve the problem of a glut in housemen. This move would put the brakes on the rise in the number of housemen and to ensure the quality of the doctors in Malaysia.

Penang Gerakan Chairman and National Vice-President Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan pointed a joint effort between the Higher Education and Health Ministries in the five-year moratorium on medical programmes would control the dramatic increase in medical schools and hence can control the problem of the glut in housemen.

Dr Teng said, in year 2000, Malaysia had only 4 medical schools; today, the number has increased to a total of 25 medical schools in Malaysia, which contained 10 public universities and 15 private colleges.

However, although the government had planned not to approve the establishment of new medical schools, the respective departments should continue to supervise the existing medical programmes, especially the number of students in private medical colleges, to ensure that equipments provided are sufficient and able to load to the number of new students enrolled for training.

Dr Teng explained, due to the profit-making consideration, some private colleges tend to accept as many students as possible and it will cause the situation of insufficient equipments to meet students’ training needs.

Gerakan always concern for the problem of the glut in medical schools and housemen. A press conference called in May 2010 had urged the government to take immediate action to solve this problem and prevent it from further deteriorating.

Teng said government may consider imposing moratorium on medical programmes since Malaysia already has 10 medical schools in public universities and 15 in private colleges. If all of them reaching the full capacity of students, by estimation, 4000 doctors will be graduated every year and this will bring the problem of a glut in housemen. Therefore, quality should be prioritised rather than quantity.

“The quality of the medical graduates in Malaysia will be affected by the increasing number of housemen and insufficient training equipments to meet the needs,” said Dr Teng.

He added that although the Health Ministry indicates that more hospitals will be built for housemanships purpose, government should wait for the completion of these hospitals to load the high number of housemen before allowing the medical schools to reach the full capacity of students.