No need for Dr Radzi’s resignation as MMC chair, says senator

PETALING JAYA: A senator has rubbished a call for health director-general Dr Radzi Abu Hassan to resign as Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) president following the Malaysian Qualifications Agency’s recent denial in the issue of the registration of specialists.

Dr RA Lingeshwaran, who had in April called for the council to be revamped, said the law clearly stipulated that the MMC chairman must be the health director-general.

He also questioned who would take over the reins if Radzi were to step down.

“It makes no sense to resign. What we need is to reform the MMC,” he told FMT.

Lingeshwaran was responding to a call by DAP’s Dr Boo Cheng Hau for Radzi to step down as MMC chairman.

Boo had suggested Radzi step down from the post after MQA’s CEO Shatar Sabran clarified that the agency was not directly involved in the conundrum involving doctors who obtained their specialist qualifications via the parallel pathway programme.

And although Lingeshwaran agreed with Boo that MMC had “bungled big time” over this issue, calling for Radzi’s resignation would be seen as a knee-jerk reaction and would only complicate matters.

“Radzi should not be the sole person held responsible for this furore.”

Lingeshwaran went on to say that since DAP has agreed for amendments to the Medical Act, which would see all specialists recognised, Boo should toe the party line.

He added that it is better for DAP’s elected representatives to ensure that the amendments are pushed through to clear the backlog of specialists waiting to be included in the National Specialist Register.

“We do not want a similar issue pertaining to specialist registration to happen in future.

“This is the priority and not any resignation. Once we set the registration of the specialists on the right path, then we can work on MMC’s reforms.” he said.