He said the Ministry has also limited the hours for doing housemanship from 90 hours to 54 hours per week so they have flexible hours to get maximum exposure in specialising fields.

The training for the housemanship has also been extended from one year to two years for each doctor under a specialist.

To a question, Liow denied that critical allowances of doctors while doing their housemanship has been cut off.

"It is not trueÉthe critical allowance will be continued.

Those irresponsible quarters are manipulating the issue and have purposely spread rumours to mislead the people although the number of hours for the housemanship has been reduced to 54 per week.

"I am very concerned with the welfare of the housemans, including their training exposure, and will make sure they get adequate training and better welfare," he said.

On maintaining old medical equipment, Liow said the Ministry has directed a maintenance company to service and maintain any medical equipment in Sabah.

He said hospitals in the State are unique because there are not many private hospitals or medical centres which the hospitals can outsource for other medical services like CT Scan and MRI.

In the peninsula, government hospitals can outsource other medical services in many existing private hospitals.

"There are old equipment in the government hospitals in the country and we are in the process of upgrading them. We would look into the equipment and renewal of the old ones to ensure medical services could be delivered to the people," he said.

In another development, Liow has assured that those outstanding elective surgeries in QEH 1 during demolition of the building will be scheduled to undergo the surgeries in QEH 2 that has 12 operating theatres.

"We have a lot of elective surgeries in QEH 1 which are not very serious and we are going to call those patients to come forward to undergo the surgeries in QEH 2 before end of this month.

"We will still give priority for heart patients to undergo surgeries and later will be the elective patients," he said.

Benny Ong discovered his passion for medicine after working in agriculture bio-technology for a few years. He was looking at the Erasmus Mundus programme when he came across Pugsom.

Johns Hopkins University Department of Medicine vice chair Prof Charles Wiener said in an interview last year that some 17-year-old students might not have decided on becoming doctors after finishing secondary school, so the option of a four-year doctor of medicine programme at Pugsom would be an alternative.

“These students who decide to do a medical degree later are often more mature and directed towards their goals.

“They may have developed an appreciation for medicine during their first degree or through their research experiences,” he said, adding that his first degree was in economics.

Also part of the pioneer group at Pugsom are former UPM room mates Kalaivani Ramasamy and Darshini M Chandar.

Darshini described being at Pugsom as a golden opportunity.

“We needed to write four essays as well as sit for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and undergo an interview to enter the programme,” said Kalaivani.

Their fellow coursemate Aini Nabilah Abdul Rahman said she was glad she and her friends got a second chance to pursue their dreams of serving as doctors.

“We didn’t get into an undergraduate medical degree but we did not give up on our dreams,” she said.

Mior Ahmad Azmeer completed his biotechnology degree from an American university in May this year.

“In my final year, I discovered how much I love doing research into oncology and want to be able to treat such patients some day as a doctor,” he said.

This pioneer group of students started the Pugsom programme on Tuesday, the day after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak opened Perdana University.

Najib in his speech, said he hoped the newly-opened Perdana University will prevent a brain drain of top medical graduates.

“I hope the chance to study the best medical curriculum in the world will encourage more of our country’s top graduates to stay at home,” he said.

This new university, a far-sighted collaboration between the Govern­ment’s Public-Private Unit and the corporate sector, is something of a landmark for Malaysia, Najib said.

He also announced that the Government would provide a significant number of scholarships to Malaysians selected to pursue their medical training at the university.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was installed as the university’s first chancellor.

Perdana University vice-chancellor Major-Gen ® Datuk Dr R. Mohanadas said the name of the university was chosen by Dr Mahathir to honour all the prime ministers of Malaysia, past and present.

There are two medical schools under Perdana University — Pugsom and the Perdana University-Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (PU-RCSI).

Dr Mohanadas said Pugsom is working in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to offer the doctor of medicine programme.

The PU-RCSI will offer the five-year undergraduate medical degree programme with the RCSI. It will be based on the programme offered by the 227-year old RCSI medical school in Dublin.

A total of 90 students will begin the PU-RCSI programme tomorrow.

“The buildings at our interim campus have been renovated and equipped to meet the specific needs of the two medical schools and accreditation agencies,” said Dr Mohanadas.

The university’s permanent campus will be located on a 57-hectare piece of land situated within the Mardi Complex and is expected to be operational in 2014.

“The permanent campus will also have a 600-bed private teaching hospital that will be managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International to ensure that the Johns Hopkins brand of care is provided here in Malaysia,” he added.

Dr Mohanadas explained that part of the institution’s strategic plan was for it to be recognised as a research university and to offer homegrown programmes in the next two years.

Speaking about the Perdana-Johns Hopkins partnership, United States (US) Ambassador to Malaysia Paul W. Jones praised both institutions for bringing advanced medical education and training to Malaysia.

“The collaboration between Johns Hopkins and Perdana University to create Malaysia’s first graduate level medical programme, together with a research facility and teaching hospital, adds a new dimension to the US-Malaysian partnership,” he said.

Prof Wiener, who is also Pugsom founding dean and chief executive officer, said the Genes to Society curriculum – used at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine – would be introduced here.