Recently, there has been a lot of discussion on the government's de-recognition of the medical degree from the Crimea State Medical University in Ukraine. As usual a lot of people are crying foul without understanding the issues at hand.

I am a product of Universiti Malaya's Medical Faculty graduating in 1972 when the faculty was the only one in the country with standards high for both admission and during training. It was the era when the General Medical Council of the UK gave blanket recognition for UM medical graduates and more than 50 percent of each class ended specialising in various fields, most of them overseas.

I specialised in anaesthesiology in Australia and worked at the top of my field in the Health Ministry from which I have retired recently.

Many of my senior colleagues have expressed great concern with the deteriorating quality of candidates who are selected to do medicine at universities both locally as well as abroad. The list of worries is almost endless

dubious entry qualifications,

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universities being forced to take a lot of candidates resulting in gross dilution of training,

private universities being in the game just for the money,

faculty members most of whom are part-time,

the lowering of standards to enable a larger group to pass at the final exams and

really poor attitude of candidates who seem to think that medicine is just another field to make money or get some status.

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Add to this the intense pressure by parents to ensure that one their children must at all costs become a doctor, and you do not have a nice picture.

At the end of the day, the ultimate price will be paid by the public who will have to put up with ill-trained doctors who have very limited scholastic ability. Medicine has and always will be a process of life-long learning.

It does not end with a five- or six-year medical course as many seem to think. The safety of our public can only be ensured by an independent medical council which vets all undergraduate as well as postgraduate qualifications.

We cannot afford to get carried away by emotional arguments based on a myriad of reasons or be pressured by lobby groups and politicians, all of whom have agendas. For its part, the Malaysian Medical Council must act without fear or favour in that all medical colleges - be they in the country, overseas, government or private - must be subject to regular scrutiny.

In many countries including our neighbour Singapore, almost all foreign medical graduates have to pass the local final exams set by the Singapore Medical Council with standards the same as that taken by their local graduates.

The same applies in the UK and Australia with everyone wishing to practice there sitting for exams set by the local regulatory authorities. The time has come for us to also adopt this stance in widening the number of medical schools and colleges whose graduates must sit for a local qualifying exam. Our main concern should always be public safety and nothing else.