The reassurance by the GMC follows concerns raised by a specialist with a public hospital here that the Fellowship of the RCSEd (FRCSEd) obtained through the Malaysian parallel pathway programme is not recognised for application as a specialist in the UK.
The GMC said the specialist, who has a FRCSEd Cardiothoracic (Joint Specialty Fellowship-JSF) certificate, may apply for the certificate of eligibility of specialist recognition, or CESR, through the portfolio pathway system.
Portfolio pathway is the route to obtain specialist registration in the UK for all cardiothoracic specialists who are not from its local programmes but trained in other countries.
The GMC’s specialist applications adviser, Steven Osbourne, said in an email reply to the doctor that the applicant must demonstrate knowledge appropriate for specialist practice in the UK.
“The Joint Committee on Intercollegiate Examinations (JCIE) specialty examination and the FRCS (Cardiothoracic) demonstrate this,” the email read.
The specialist, who did not want to be identified, is registered with the GMC, a prerequisite to practise or apply for specialist registration in the UK.
No automatic registration of specialists globally
A senior practising cardiothoracic surgeon said the royal colleges would assess and vet portfolio pathway applications received by the GMC for specialist registration.
He said this proves that even the GMC does not act as subject matter expert in assessing specialists’ applications and leaves it to the UK surgeons’ fraternity.
“This is something the Malaysian Medical Council can learn from. The GMC is obviously safeguarding their local doctors’ interests first instead of foreign specialists who are graduates from programmes elsewhere in the world.
“No country is going to grant automatic registration for doctors from any programme around the world regardless of the course provider. This will open floodgates, breach existing immigration policies, and the government will be accused of not protecting their local doctors,” the surgeon, who also requested anonymity, said.
He said the concept of automatic full specialist registration in the UK demanded by the MMC before it places them in the National Specialist Register (NSR) is a fallacy. If this happens, most of the Malaysian surgeons trained at the royal colleges in the UK will settle down there.
The surgeon said the MMC should focus on real and pertinent issues such as standards, course content, training volume, syllabus, curriculum, examinations, and a robust quality assurance where overseas partners like the RCSEd play a crucial role in those aspects.
He said it would be absurd to let anyone with qualifications walk into hospitals here and “start opening our citizens’ chests” without any scrutiny or review by the fraternity and the MMC.
“Surgeons who pass exams with flying colours are not necessarily competent technically. A surgeon’s certification is too crucial of an issue to be based on examinations alone,” he said, adding that the extra requirements set by the GMC is mandatory globally.
The MMC is no exception as it vets and reviews applications for specialist registration for all returning surgeons from overseas, including those from the UK, he said.
He said the ministry even placed returning surgeons with UK JCIE qualifications in cardiothoracic centres in Serdang and Penang hospitals for a period of observation before their application for NSR is approved.
“No one gets a free pass be it in the UK or Malaysia. Our nation needs the specialists, not the UK.”
In any case, he said, obtaining GMC automatic registration has never been the objective of the parallel pathway programme as this can lead to a serious brain drain.
“So, the fraternity is wondering why the MMC is using the eligibility of parallel pathway graduates to be registered automatically abroad as the yardstick for NSR registration knowing very well that this will not serve the interests of patients in our country.”
British high commissioner to Malaysia Ailsa Terry confirmed on Thursday that the GMC continues to recognise qualifications from the prestigious royal colleges.