Medical education has always been a touchy issue in Malaysia. The system has been endlessly plagued by controversy. From quotas to quality standards to half-baked academicians, you name it, we’ve ‘accomplished’ it. Today, I will be touching on one of the lesser-known but equally troubling issues regarding medical education- the difficulties faced by prospective doctors in obtaining an increasingly exclusive place in public gov medical schools.

Meet Timmy (not his real name), an STPM candidate who aspires to be a doctor. Spurred on by his passion the field, Timmy toils and ploughs his way through arguably the most difficult university entrance exam in the world. After months of gruelling academic rigours, Timmy’s hard work has finally paid off when he scored straight As in his exams; an achievement par excellence. However, Timmy did not manage to get hold of a place in medicine in any of the public universities. To complicate matters further, Timmy’s family is in financial turmoil and is thus unable to fork out the half a million Ringgit required to study in a private medical school. Alas, his hopes and dreams have been dashed, not lack of intelligence or competence, as in the case of most medical rejects, but by the lack of talent appreciation on behalf of the authorities. A rather indignant way to shatter ambitions, don’t you think?

The situation described above is widespread in Malaysia, almost to the extent that it has become an accepted norm. Everywhere you turn, left and right, you see talented individuals being denied an opportunity to chase their dreams. Though not limited to medical degrees, medicine is certainly one of the worst hit courses.
It is a well-known fact that education in a public university is significantly cheaper (true in whichever way you may think of it) compared to the same qualification obtained from a private institution. However, I believe there is a shortage of medical places in public universities…

Below is a list of all public universities with medical schools in Malaysia:


Universiti Sains Malaysia
Universiti Malaya
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Universiti Teknologi Mara
International Islamic Unviersity
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia


9 public medical schools serving a population of 28 million.
3.1 million people per medical school.

Imagine a world where doctors earn a pittance. Imagine if specialists and surgeons in Malaysia had their RM 40,000 monthly paycheck reduced to a mere.. say, RM5,000.

Do I hear you say “Woah, damn good lidat, man! Doctor less money, means we pay less, means we get more money! Wohoo!”

You’re wrong. When you meet medical students or doctor-wannabe’s and if you ask them the holy, almighty question:
“Why do you want to be a doctor?”

And if they answer:
“Because I want to help people.”

Do you know what you should do? Give them a nice, hard knock on their heads to wipe the hypocritical shit out of their mind.

I can safely say that 90% of them have money on their minds. Obviously, most of them have a passion in the field or don’t mind giving a helping hand as well but if anyone says:
“I’m not doing it for the money”

Well, they’re either:

Lying.
Crazy.
Stupid.
Maybe all three.

Nobody in their right mind will enter medicine if they pay is low. NOBODY.

Even, I, the egoistic, righteous, doctor-soon-to-be I am, will admit that despite having a burning interest in medicine, i will NOT become a doctor if they pay me peanuts.

There. I've said it out loud. Go ahead. Flame me.

I mean, seriously..?! The profession is competitive, the lifestyle undesirable, the hours inhumane, heck the only factors anchoring a doctor within his/her field would be the satisfaction and the five-digit number they add monthly into their bank balance.

Medicine is a unique field. It has the ability to attract the best minds and talents. Rightly so too. We wouldn’t want to be treated by someone who scrapped through high school with Cs and Ds now, would we? We can’t possibly have crack addicts doing lumbar punctures or sexually frustrated ah peks performing rectal exams..
That would just be wrong.
Hence, we need to draw in the brains. How do we do that? Simple; jack up the salary.
A LOT.

High-achievers are a competitive lot, no doubt about that. They want challenges, they want success. Medicine offers both, hence the doctor-frenzy in most countries. Now, what if we took out success from the equation? What would we get?

Massive brain drain.

Medicine will slide down the prestige rank.

Less and less people will want to do medicine.

Medical practitioners will no longer be smart, witty and compassionate.

Hospitals will be filled with ah peks, ah bengs, and nutjobs with rainbow-coloured hair under the guise of doctors.

Talented individuals will flock to other professions, say law and politics.
Not good.

The lawyers will thrive on increasing medical malpractices caused by the influx of mediocrity. The already broke doctors will go poorer.
The politicians will probably swamp healthcare with mindless policies and pointless formalities.

The end result?

Utter destruction of public health.

Underpaid doctors? Not a nice thought.

This scenario is already happening in Cuba.

Cuba: 1 doctor for every 170 citizens.
Australia: 1 doctor for every 400 citizens.
Singapore: 1 doctor for every 700 citizens.
Malaysia: 1 doctor for every 1400 citizens.

Despite boasting the impressive statistic of having the lowest doctor per capita ratio in the world, Cuba’s healthcare is in ruins.

Cuban Health Statistics
Infant mortality rate: 6.04 death per 1,000 live births. (168th out of 226 countries surveyed)
Death rate: 6.33 deaths per 1,000 people (129th out of 224 countries surveyed)
Life expectancy at birth: 77 years (37th out of 225 countries surveyed)

While these statistics aren’t exactly horrifying, one would expect a country with double the number of doctors compared to that in the USA to do much better. An average Cuban doctor earns only US$20 per month or 261 pesos. This is only 1.5 times the Cuban national mean salary; much like a doctor in Malaysia earning RM4,500.

Hence, many Cuban doctors eventually leave the profession to work in other more lucrative industries. Most participate in the tourism industry, where the pay is reportedly up to 50-60 times what a doctor earns.
Imagine studying 6 years just to work as a taxi driver… That’s just sad.

As a finality, the pay for an average doctor should remain high enough to attract talent but not excessively lavish to the extent of living like kings.

*cough*cough* USA cardiothoracic surgeons *cough*US$1 million per year*choke*