Cynthia Busuttil
Changes in British recruitment system likely to attract more young doctors
More than half of future doctors who would graduate this year have already been accepted to do their housemanship in British hospitals.
The president of the Medical Association of Malta, Martin Balzan, said 35 of the 50 students in their last year at the University plan to leave the island once they graduate.
This follows another bad year - 15 of the 50 doctors who graduated last year never worked in Malta. Contacted yesterday, Dr Balzan said the association was informed that another 20 of last year's group have been accepted to work in British hospitals and plan to leave the island in July.
Statistics tabled in Parliament last Monday showed that about 13 per cent of doctors who graduated between 2003 and last year were no longer employed with the government on a full-time basis.
Answering a parliamentary question, Health Minister Louis Deguara said 223 of the 256 doctors who graduated over the past five years were still working in Malta and all were full-time employees with the government.
Dr Balzan however insisted such statistics did not show the full picture. Newly-graduated doctors used to do their two-year housemanship in Malta before leaving the island, normally for Britain. The UK changed its system last year and started recruiting doctors who had just graduated.
Previously, doctors would apply to enter the UK's training system after three to four years working in Malta.
In addition, the agreement just signed between the government and the MAM was mainly oriented at the more senior medical practitioners and so would not entice new graduates to stay here.
Dr Balzan said the association was having talks with the authorities to find a solution to this problem, which could lead to a lack of young doctors in the local health system. As a last resort, the government should employ foreign doctors from other EU countries.
The MAM has long been saying that Malta is suffering from a brain drain of doctors which was creating difficulties for the health service. A study conducted by the association in 2006 showed that over 62 per cent of hospital doctors registered by the Malta Medical Council between 1994 and 2003 left the island, with only 9.1 per cent having returned since.
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Lisa Fiorentino
Jan 23rd 2008, 14:59
Do I detect a hint of 'doctor resentment' in Ms. Oates' comments? But of course, money is all that these spoilt young graduate doctors can think of! Why didn't my colleagues and I think of that before? We leave our families, friends and our beloved country to go and live the high life and make millions. Think again!
If we, young doctors, don't take the initiative ourselves at this point in time, to go abroad and specialise, our career progress will be stalled once and for all. We'll be destined to a grey career area of being knowledgeable in many areas but masters of none. A medical undergraduate degree is equivalent to an 'A' level when one is aiming higher.
Malta does not have the resources to fully train so many doctors into so many fields of expertise. So it is only natural that young graduate doctors flee Malta's shores. The earlier the better, when one takes into consideration the enormous competition raging on out there among medical graduates from all over the world trying to get into a limited number of select training posts. We all know that numerus clausus was removed from the medical course with the aim of churning out more junior doctors for the new humungous hospital.
But no serious thought was given to what would happen to our career after serving the state for 2 years. It was assumed that we would be content and accepting of our situation and continue to serve big brother! As the situation stands now, one has to start spreading roots into foreign health care systems at an early stage to stand any chance of specialising by forty years of age.
So no, it is not our concern, as individuals, if there aren't enough junior doctors left behind to man the nation's hospitals. That's what the concerned authorities should have figured out ages ago. One last comment; having been given a stipend is not the issue here. All university students are given stipends and since joining EU hundreds of students are leaving the island every year soon after graduating in search of greener, less stifling pastures.
Isn't that why we young (and older) ones voted for EU membership? Then why put only graduate doctors in a bad light? Oh yes, I hadn't realised! We're the ones raiding the country's coffers and the ones who will continue to live off the honest earnings of our fellow countrymen once we return to Malta! Working 30 hour shifts, once, twice a week is oh so dishonest! Then again has anyone thought of how unfair it is for the UK and other countries to spend hundreds of thousands to train Malta's specialists? But of course not! We're Maltese and all we care about is our own pockets!
I'm sure that all those exhibiting this line of thought wouldn't have shown the slightest concern about the number of doctors leaving Malta, if stipends did not exist! Finally, to all those planning to embark on the long painful journey of specialisation - aim high, work hard and never give up! Do Malta proud!
Charles DeMicoli
Jan 23rd 2008, 12:26
Do the doctors who leave the island re-imburse the University?
Filomena Oates
Jan 23rd 2008, 11:59
What a shame! These are the young people who have been educated at the country's expense - where else in the world do you get a stipend to go to the sixth form followed by university and other higher education institutions to then abandon your country to go and earn more money elsewhere.
Why not tie these medics (if there is such a great need) in a contract like it was in the olden days for those who attended teacher training colleges? And what about introducing student loans which can be paid off when they start working.
We sacrificed a lot to send our two sons to private schools (our choice admittedly!) followed by university. They both ended up with a huge student loan, even though we subsidised their university years, but as good upright citizens they have learnt that it is a privilege to get such a high standard of education and it is their duty to pay back for it.
When are the authorities going to take the bull by the horns and introduce student loans - I bet you half the cars in the university carpark will disappear overnight.
Why should all citizens' money subsidise those who will then charge them the earth for a few minutes of their time?