Family medicine residency program launch in Malaysia

Tom O'Callaghan, CEO at iheed (pictured above) at the launch of our blended family medicine residency program in Malaysia. This new program for Family Medicine training is in partnership with the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus (RUMC). Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah DG Ministry of Health spoke about how we are solving the need for well-trained family doctors in Malaysia to meet national targets by this innovative blended program. Thanks to all involved in this exciting partnership.

“Today marks another important milestone, another step forward in training for more Family Medicine Specialist (FMS) in Malaysia. On 17th August 2018, YB Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, the Minister of Health Malaysia had witnessed the MOU signing between MOH and RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus, to establish a new pathway for Family Medicine speciality training for doctors in Malaysia.

Today, 21st October 2019, this training program is officially launched in Penang. This parallel pathway for FMS training program is called Malaysia-Ireland Training Program for Family Medicine, or MInTFM in short. The launching is graced by the presence of Her Excellency Miss Hilary Reilly, Ambassador of Ireland to Malaysia.

For the past one year, suitable centres and trainers were identified and accredited to deliver the training. The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) curriculum were customised to meet the healthcare needs of Malaysia’s population. Today, the first cohort of doctors have been selected and training has commenced whereby 35 trainees have enrolled in this program.

Family medicine and primary care are amongst the Ministry’s main focus areas. This MiNTFM is in line with the MOH efforts to boost the number of FMS in the country as this will contribute to improving the health of Malaysians. Currently, there are over 700 FMS in public and private facilities nationwide, but this is still far from our actual requirements. The country still needs at least 8,000 more FMS to fulfil the need of our population with the target ratio of 1 in 4,000. Apart from this program, we also have the FMS Masters program in local public universities and also the Diploma in Family Medicine (DFM) plus Fellowship of Australian Royal College of General Practitioners (FRACGP) training conducted by Academy of Family Physician Malaysia with Australian Royal College of General Practitioners.

On behalf of the MOH, I would like to congratulate the MInTFM team and everyone involved to make this collaboration a success. I would also like to thank Professor David Whitford and the team for taking up the challenge together with the Ministry and responding to our nation’s call for more trained, qualified specialists in family medicine. We hope this program and other programs can be expanded in time to come to cater for more doctors. More importantly upon completion of training the trainees will be inducted into the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and NSR to serve in MOH for the betterment of the health of Malaysians.”

Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director General Ministry of Health, Malaysia