SIBU – The proposal to temporarily open Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to non-Bumiputera students for the cardiothoracic surgery master’s programme must take into account the number of interested doctors as well as the university’s objective.
Sarawak Deputy Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee said not many doctors choose to train as cardiothoracic surgeons due to the tough, tedious, and long training hours.
“As a starting point, my view is that we need to look into the objective of establishing UiTM in the first place; it is meant for Bumiputera students. If you want to change their massive policy, there will be numerous implications involved.
“With regard to the lack of cardiothoracic surgeons, it happens everywhere and not solely in Malaysia.
“People must know that training as a cardiothoracic surgeon takes a long time. Firstly, one has to become a general surgeon, following which one must go through a subspecialty called cardiothoracic surgery, and that takes around four to five years.
“My gut feeling tells me that not many doctors are choosing to become cardiothoracic surgeons due to the tough and long training hours.”
He was speaking to reporters after launching a programme at University of Technology Sarawak here today.
Annuar said training as a cardiothoracic surgeon requires an individual to be extremely dedicated, given the tedious training involved.
“I know this because I am a trained cardiologist (by profession). I work together with cardiothoracic surgeons and my wife is a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist. We know how cardiothoracic surgeons work and how they are trained.
“The advancement in the treatment for coronary artery disease, which results in numerous complicated cases, no longer requires operation.
“The patients can be referred to a cardiologist for balloon angioplasty and heart stenting. In other words, the market for cardiothoracic surgeons is shrinking.”
Given the development, he said the number of doctors keen to be trained as cardiothoracic surgeons needs to be ascertained should UiTM choose to open up to non-Bumiputera students.
“If there are a huge number of doctors wanting to be trained as cardiothoracic surgeons and the country is in need of such specialists, then why not open the doors?
“I was told that UM will have similar courses in the future. If there is this form of agreement that is merely temporary, then why not wait for UM’s programme to be fully developed?” he said.
Annuar was asked to comment on Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii’s recent statement regarding healthcare and the provision of adequate and quality care to patients, as it should not be politicised nor looked at from a racial lens.
Yii said the issue at hand is the severe lack of specialists, in particular those in cardiothoracic surgery, and so an option was proposed to allow UiTM, which is more advanced in formulating a cardiothoracic surgery master’s programme, to be opened temporarily to non-Malays before being transferred to Universiti Malaya (UM) once its master’s programme is fully developed. – May 18, 2024