MEDICAL SCHOOLS : THE SUPPLY AND AVAILABILITY OF QUALIFIED HUMAN RESOURCES - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

As Malaysia enters the new millennium and the objective of attaining a developed nation status by the year 2020, there is a similar expectation that the healthcare of the nation will also be at par or even better than the developed nations. Will this be an eventuality or will this be only a dream? If the present statistics were anything to go by, we are still behind and will likely to remain behind if we were to persist with the present rate. The present doctor to population ratio is about 1:1500 and this needs to
be brought down to 1:600 by the year 2020. Considering that the present 6 local public Medical Schools produce about 600 new medical graduates a year, this output is hardly sufficient to meet the numbers required. After 45 years of independence, why are we still short of medical doctors and what can be done to try overcoming this problem?