I AM utterly shocked to find out that the vast majority of the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) members do not have any valid Annual Practicing Certificate (APC).
This is despite the Medical Act 1971 having stipulated that all MMC members must be fully registered medical practitioners, meaning that they must hold a valid APC.
This legal effect of the Medical Act applies similarly to all council members, including specialists registered on the National Specialist Registry and university lecturers sitting on the council.
It is worth reminding that the MMC is supposed to be a self-governing statutory body with disciplinary jurisdictions over the current medical practitioners.
Therefore, it is reasonable and lawful to require all council members to be law-abiding and to observe the discipline imposed by the council itself.
All medical practitioners are required to renew their APC based on two basic requirements:
- All medical practitioners must be covered with a medical indemnity insurance policy which is to protect both the medical profession’s legal rights as well as the patients’ right to adequate redress if litigations arise;
- All medical practitioners regardless of either specialists or general practitioners must fulfil a minimal requirement for continuous professional development (CPD) programmes that are approved by the MMC and Health Ministry (MOH).
Is MMC legal?
Failure to possess any APC means the council members are deemed not to be “fully registered practitioners”, hence they are not qualified to be sitting on the council because they have breached the disciplinary standards set by the council itself or that they have failed to comply with the pre-requisites imposed by the Medical Act itself.
The MOH needs to consult the Attorney-General Chambers (AGC) as to whether such a medical council consisting of a vast majority of non-fully registered medical practitioners is deemed to be lawfully constituted and whether it still has the legal authority to carry out any duty lawfully.
This also implies that all decisions made by the current MMC could be rendered illegal and not legally binding.
Moreover, the Higher Education Ministry should also be made aware that no university medical lecturers can legally be allowed to teach any clinical skills on any patient without a fully valid and current APC.
I urge both the MOH and Higher Education Ministry to conduct the necessary investigations and refer the matter to the AGC to protect the laws of the land and public interests while upholding the integrity of the medical fraternity. – June 20, 2024
A medical practitioner, Dr Boo Cheng Hau is also the DAP Johor state committee member.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
