KUALA LUMPUR: At the Sultan Idris Shah Serdang Hospital in Selangor, there are an estimated 1, 000 people waiting in line for serious life-saving heart surgeries.
However, at the Penang General Hospital, the waiting list for the same operation has ballooned to about 850 individuals, while the waiting period at the Kuching General Hospital is more than a year.
” All these people desperately need heart surgery. There are a shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons in the public hospitals, according to honorary secretary of the Malaysian Association for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery ( MATCVS ) Dr. John Chan Kok Meng, who told CNA. Heart conditions are unpredictable, and surgery should be performed as soon as possible.
He added that these doctors are stressed and must take on urgent cases after hours.  ,
In Malaysia’s seven public hospitals, there are only 14 cardiac surgeons now employed.  ,
There is only one physician in each of the three facilities, located in Kota Bharu in Kelantan, Kuantan in Pahang, and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, in the Malay state of Sabah.
Following four graduates of a “parallel road” training program with the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh in cardiology surgery, four of them filed a joint judicial evaluation program in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
They had challenged the Malaysian Medical Council’s ( MMC) decision to reject their applications for the National Specialist Register ( NSR ), a database of qualified medical professionals in the nation, in December of last year.  ,
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh certification, which is recognized by Singapore and Hong Kong among people, was not accepted by the MMC, a statutory system with appointed and elected health professionals from different fields that oversees plan for the health profession in the country.  ,  ,
Healthcare professionals who spoke with CNA claimed that the issue is superficial due to Malaysia’s lack of medical professionals, with some reminder that the issue may get worse as the population ages.
Beyond that, they added that the lack of experts will also have an effect on the standard of care provided by individuals in the open medical system who may not have the funds to visit private institutions.  ,
The Association of Medicine Malaysia ( AMM), a body representing specialists, warned that there is a pressing need to increase the number of specialists in the nation.
Its president Dr Rosmawati Mohamed told CNA that the population-to-specialist ratio in the country is 10, 000 to four, lower than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development’s ( OECD ) “ideal ratio” of 10, 000 to 14.3.  ,
The OECD promotes policies that will enhance people’s economic and social well-being by providing a platform where governments can collaborate to exchange experiences and discover solutions to common issues.  ,
There are 8, 397 scientists now serving in public medical facilities in 29 specialist areas, according to Health Minister Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad.  ,
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health ( MOH) has said that Malaysia needed around 18, 912 and 23, 979 specialists in the year 2025 and 2030, respectively.  ,