The Victorian Hospitals have always unofficially prioritised international students in Victoria over interstate graduates, with a few exceptions, ie really outstanding med students from interstate. And now, they finally formalised it.

It is basically a slap in the face for the Monash Sunway student, if PMCV had not changed their priority they would have had a higher chance of getting a job in Victoria. Now that PMCV has formalised the group 1 2 and 3, Monash Malaysia is placed in group 3, I could so imagine how devastated they are in terms of seeking internship in Australia. Even South Australia is ranking them below interstate internationals, ie priority 5, on par with the UQ New Orleans student.

In contrast, most Monash Sunway students last year got a job. Sigh.

This post has been edited by tqeh: Jul 25 2012, 07:28 PM

(Hope limeuu can shed some light onto this)

I was surfing through the internet and browse through some specialists' CV in some private medical centres in Malaysia. To my surprise there were a lot of doctors, graduated from UM, worked most (except fellowship) of their career in Malaysia, are able to obtain FRCS (for whatever surgery it is) eventually, and most of them obtain their FRCS at about 6th year out!

How is that possible? Ie graduated in 1987, FRCSOpth 1993. Fully registered with GMC and MMC.

I see. Thank you for that information. Does that mean all the senior consultants' previous FRCS are actually the current "MRCS" ? Gosh it is all pretty confusing now.

I guess the problem is not that simple, as this is just the beginning of the problem. If they let all of the international interns come through, it will get rolled over and carried on for HMO2 positions and on and on and on. Bear in mind once a person completed his internship he will be eligible for permanent residency hence rendering the situation even messier.

Contrary to popular beliefs, there ARE actually jobless interns out there whom are unable to secure a HMO2 position. Most jobs are full in Adelaide, Perth, Vic, Sydney and Queensland. Even Rockhampton and Mackay are full. I always thought that internship is the bottleneck, there are always more HMO2 positions that interns, but no, the fact is there are still jobless people out there. But this time around, it is not limited to international students - some interns that are born and bred in Aussie, live in Aussie school in Aussie, are still left jobless without a place.

This is just the beginning of the problem, sadly.

Limeuu, I did not study nor work in the UK. But I have heard postgraduate in the UK is difficult but most of my friends got it anyway. Why?

And I have seen a couple of times you mentioned about top students with good references getting PG job. But, how many people can actually be top student in the university? And some top students did not end up performing extremely well in work anyway.

It is likely that it is a unintentional mistake (for aspirin and ?cardiprin).
Not sure why gemfibrozil, does it actually really work? Definitely I wont feel comfortable starting them together.
? consider beta blocker in future?
Statin is a must regardless of lipid studies given its role in secondary prevention.
Plavix - did not state the duration? Was PCI done/ BMS/ DES? =D

Such mistake would not be made if there is a pharmacist around checking discharge scripts?

Yea, I think I know what are those drugs for after a few years of medical school.

I have not been studying in a while (like really super long) but correct me if I am wrong (I know there are a lot of senior doctors reading, please correct me if I am wrong!)

I have no idea if gemfibrozil actually works in secondary prevention of cardiovascular event - I have not been taught about it, or read about it, or find out about it.

Statins MUST be used in secondary prevention of cardiovascular event as Number Needed to Treat is low (?50, cant remember, depending on which studies you pick and which statin)

Statins, can be used for primary prevention for high risk patient - oh well, nowadays ppl just treat numbers anyway lol even if they are perfectly healthy lol. NNT probably about 1000? pretty low yield.

Perindopril has to be used post AMI as it reduces mortality (er, something to do with cardiac remodelling blabla)

B-blocker, in patient post AMI without significantly impaired systolic function (Ie systolic heart failure), should be commenced on a B-blocker (low dose first, as tolerated) as it reduced recurrent AMIs and ?mortality.

And yea, about the plavix part, I dont know man, I dont know whether the patient had a STEMI/NSTEMI. But the duration of plavix should be documented!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that from lecture / real life practice? I see so many cardiologists start people (private prac) on rosuvastatin. Hospital people tend to get atorva.

Agreed that CCB should be changed to B-blocker. Here we use metoprolol, and some heart function clinics (run by heart failure specialist, ie cardiologist who did fellowships in HF) uses atenolol, not sure why.

It is quite interesting to know that in Malaysia we can diagnose "CCF" without a documented Echo. I know it's a clinical diagnosis but still, wouldn't you want to know whether you have missed any important information, ie Pulmonary HTN, LV RV size EF etc.

Just had some bedside teaching about diastolic heart failure (and had a glance at all the heart function clinic letters for a patient admitted under med) - basically it's all about fluid balance and beta blocker, and there is nothing much else to treat. A quick read in uptodate showed that there is not much data about diastolic heart failure. ?ACEI ?diuretics ?probably beta blocker. Difficult! Thats why you need to go to heart function clinic lol

Am just talking about diastolic HF, not HF in general.

I think we need to be more professional than speculating other people's cause of death based on newspaper report.

Limeuu,
Having said that, lotsa my consultants in hospital are pretty "$-minded". The first detail they look at (especially surgeons) for patient is whether or not he/she has private health insurance. If they have, they will try to drag them across to private and speed up the procedure.

Why cant people ask about which specialty makes more money? lol. And also, which specialty is more employable/ more business/ more jobs around.

Someone needs to take time to explain to layman.
MRCP/MRCS/MRCPCH are EXAMS that you can take, AND MALAYSIA recognise those qualifications so in MALAYSIA you are eligible to be gazetted to be a specialist once you cleared those exams.

In UK they are more of an entrance exam that you have to clear before you are eligible for advanced specialty training. To be admitted to the GMC as a specialist (Ie FRCS FRACP watever you can think of), you need to TRAIN in the UK in accredited rotations in an accredited position, which means, you will have to WORK THERE, which means YOU WILL HAVE TO GET A JOB THERE.

You dont "study" postgraduate qualification for, let say, 6 years, then come out as a specialist.

You "work" in an accredited position for 6 years, let say, physician or surgeon, and then you pass your exams along the way, and exit as a specialist.

This post has been edited by tqeh: Jan 7 2013, 07:50 PM

Having worked in the Hospital with the least Whipple's complication rate in Australia, I have encountered several Whipple's patients that ended up not having pancreatic cancer. Seems like it is not uncommon for people to go ahead and resect the lesions seen in pancreas.

Hopefully there is no case.

This post has been edited by tqeh: Jan 10 2013, 10:18 PM

*edited*

This post has been edited by tqeh: Jan 10 2013, 10:22 PM

Too late already, head of pancreas is already out! haha, along with many other organ parts

I believe the first few batches from Monash Malaysia are quite good, requirement (for A-levels) is 3As and above, but that was during my time.

Had a friend who got an offer from the Aussie, but failed to get into Monash Malaysia, which is weird, lol.

Thats a surprise.

I remember when I was on, there was something going between IMU and Monash, ie if you get rejected in either of the university, you are not eligible to apply for the other. Cant really remember the details of it.

Yea I supposed now the Monash Malaysia's graduates are going downhill, why did they increase the number of students to that much, given that Tan Sri JC has openly stated that whatever revenue they generate via the medical school is going straight back to fund the school (? is there a special term for it?).

I think ALL states now have put in place a priority list which makes Monash Malaysia graduates even more difficult to get a job in the Aussie. Ie South Australia, Monash Malaysia comes after international NZ grads.