KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — The Malaysian Allied Health Professions Council’s (MAHPC) decision to amend the Second Schedule of the Allied Health Professions Act 2016 (Act 774) was in line with the development of allied health services in Malaysia, public service policy, technological changes and current trends at the international level.
Health director-general who is also MAHPC chairman, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said among the amendments was to group Clinical Scientists — Biochemist, Biomedical Scientist, Embryologist, Medical Geneticist, Microbiologist — and Forensic Science Officer under one profession of Medical Laboratory Scientist.
In addition, he said, the Allied Health Professions (Amendment of Second Schedule) Order 2022 had been gazetted and came into force on March 24, which listed 16 allied health professions to be regulated under Act 774, including audiologist and dietitian.
Other professions listed in the schedule are entomologist (public health), physiotherapist, medical physicist, nutritionist, clinical psychologist, diagnostic radiographer, medical laboratory scientist, occupational therapist, speech-language therapist, radiation therapist, medical laboratory technologist, dental technologist, environmental health officer and health education officer.
“The Second Schedule (2022) will replace the Second Schedule (2016) which listed 23 categories of allied health professions,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham also said the council, through the 5th MAHPC Meeting (No. 1/2022), has agreed to set several matters related to the registration policy of allied health practitioners.
These include the commencement date for registration of allied health practitioners; the transition period of registration; standards of academic qualifications; approval of registration applications; as well as the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
In addition, the council set the commencement date for registration of Allied Health Professions practitioners on July 1 this year, and the transition period is three years from that date until June 30, 2025 (subject to Council decision).
MAHPC also stipulated that the registration of allied health practitioners will be carried out on a rotation basis according to a schedule that will be announced later, the statement read.
“Application for Registration and Practicing Certificate will be fully conducted online using the Malaysian Healthcare Practitioners’ System (MHPS) application.
“Application for Practicing Certificate is expected to only begin in November 2022, while the application for Temporary Practicing Certificate for non-citizen practitioners will be done manually,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said the briefing sessions regarding the registration policy will be implemented in stages from June and the guidelines on registration and allied health practices will be issued by MAHPC from time to time starting this July.
