1Malaysia Lotus F1 Team 2010

1Malaysia: The making of the Late Yasmin Ahmad's "chocolate" and the full version

USM 40th Convocation

The 40th convocation of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) will be held from Wednesday, 12 August 2009 till Sunday, 16 August 2009 at the Tuanku Syed Putra Hall, USM, Pulau Pinang.

Visit http://registry.usm.my/konvo/default.asp for datails

NGV blast

SUBANG JAYA: An NGV-powered Proton Waja exploded in the car park at an apartment in Serdang Jaya yesterday, killing its driver and destroying three other vehicles.

K. Mailvaganan, 43, was found slumped in the front seat of the car at about 6.45am by police officers who were alerted to an explosion at Skyvilla Apartments.

It is learnt that Mailvaganan, a limousine driver, might have fallen asleep inside the car with the engine running.

A security guard at the apartment said he heard the loud explosion before seeing a cloud of black smoke from one of the CCTV images.

Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said that based on initial police investigations, there was no element of foul play.

Adapted from : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/7/5/nation/4260042&sec=nation

Government doctors still not being paid their due

“Deal for government docs reasonable” (The Star, May 12) by the PSD which stated that the initial salary of government Medical Officers was the highest compared with those of other schemes of service in the public sector????? Is it a myth or reality?

DATO’ DR KHOO KAH LIN, President, MMA said....

1.R egards to the on-call allowance, we would like to point out that the RM150 per night is only for medical officers doing “active” on-call duty, i.e. working 16 hours per day beyond their normal working hours

2. Not all medical officers are given the opportunity to do RM80 per hour for locum work, as the extended clinic hours (5pm to 9pm) only involve 16 polyclinics and the locum work is mostly done by the doctors working at a particular polyclinic and doctors working at other polyclinics.

3. The actual UD44 salary at P1T1 is RM3,028.90 with fixed allowances of RM1,450.00 (including critical allowance of RM750, housing allowance of RM400, elaun khidmat awam of RM300 and COLA RM100 to RM300 depending on the location) and not a salary of RM6,000 per month

Conclusion : MMA has repeatedly requested the Government to introduce a separate service scheme for government doctors from that of other civil servants, as a doctor’s undergraduate training is longer at between five and six years, compared with other professionals.

Ref: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/3/focus/4003932&sec=focus

From Deputy Director-General of Health (Medical)

DATUK DR NOOR HISHAM ABDULLAH said;

The MOH affirmed that only medical officers from recognised universities are accepted to work as contract officers in line with the requirements of the Medical Act 1971.

These medical officers are given full registration and Annual Practicing Certificates as per their contracts. Therefore, they can only practise medicine at the specified MOH facilities.

Hence under the Act, they cannot practise in universities or act as locums in private clinics or private hospitals.

While working with the MOH, these contract doctors are not allowed to join the Masters Programme in public universities.

Ref: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/29/focus/21387338&sec=focus

from Minister of Health

Liow also said that doctors at government hospitals, who were on call, were now allowed to be off the next day

Liow also urged more private sector doctors to volunteer their time at government medical establishments at least once a month. “It is national service and we pay a token fee of RM80 an hour,” he said.

Liow said as of two weeks ago, doctors at government hospitals were required to place their names at the beds of patients to create a “patient ownership” environment.

Ref: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/28/nation/21376236&sec=nation