Historical Perceptive of Urology Training by Dr Lei College of Surgeons Annual Meeting 13 May 2018

Academy College of Surgeons of Malaysia, Annual Scientific Meeting, Ipoh

13 May 2018

Historical Perceptive of Urology Training

Clarence Lei

Adjunct Professor,Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

 Honorary Consultant Urologist, HKL and SGH

 c/o Normah Hospital, Kuching

The author joined full time urological practice in January 1987 and was also actively involved since then as an office bearer of the Malaysian Urological Association (MUA), initially as its honorary secretary.   The events prior to 1987 are extracted from the archives of MUA and interviews with senior urologists.    The Malaysian Urological Association was formed on 23.7.1974 with the main office bearers as David Chelvanagam  and the late G Sreenevasan.  The main training centre was the Institute of Urology and Nephrology, GHKL.   Since its inception, the MUA has a strong exchange programme with Australia, cumulating with an MOU signed on 22.2.2007.  The urology training before 2000 was an apprenticeship type of training for 4 years, with Dato Dr Khairullah Abdullah as Head of Urology for almost two decades.  The first Board of Urology of Malaysia exam was held in 2000.  Since 2008, the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow (the College being established in 1899) was invited to participate.  This led to the conjoint award of board certification as well as a FRCS (Urol) , which is recognised by the General Medical Council of the UK.  The programme had also attracted candidates from overseas including Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar and Sudan.   However, the number of urologists trained is still a handful per year. In 2016, the Ministry of Health encouraged the intact of new trainees who have passed their MRCS. In tandem with this, a new curriculum & training structure is spearheaded by the current president of the MUA, Selvalingam as well as national urologist of the Ministry of Health,   Rohan Malek.  Most urologists  resign to go to the private sector. A new flexi working hours was implemented on 1.1.2018 such that the specialists need work only 4 days in the government hospitals.  The MUA also enhances the government initiative of PPP, Public Private  Partnership  in a working paper that was approved by the Ministry of Health on 13.11.2017.  New trainees are now taken in after the MRCS (4 to 5 years after medical school) and undergo training in a unified (public and private) urology service of Malaysia.