For Future Doctors: The New Rules and Regulations ………..for better or worst?It has been a while since I updated my blog. Too many events and personal issues to settle along the way. However, the medical field in Malaysia is undergoing some new changes since early this year. It started with the contract HO post and multiple complaints in the news regarding the delay in housemanship posting […]
It has been a while since I updated my blog. Too many events and personal issues to settle along the way. However, the medical field in Malaysia is undergoing some new changes since early this year. It started with the contract HO post and multiple complaints in the news regarding the delay in housemanship posting etc. In May 2017, MOH announced that ozone therapy is banned from July 2017! Beauty centres are also being monitored for providing unlicensed beauty treatments. Sadly, there are many doctors who are providing such services to beauty centres. Since beauticians can’t inject any substance into a person, they need doctors. Doctors/Paramedics are the only one licensed to inject substance into a person. Drugs under poison act can only be administered by a doctor. As I had always said, in the end it is all about money and survival. There are many GPs who are struggling to cope with rising cost of running a medical business and turn to aesthetic medicine. While there are guidelines issued by KKM in practising aesthetic medicine, the enforcement is rather weak. BUT always remember that whenever you go to a beauty centre to do a procedure, it is ILLEGAL if the centre is NOT registered under your APC as a place of practise. Furthermore, any centre that are using medical equipments and drugs MUST be registered under Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998. If not, you will end up like this doctor in court!
As of July 2017, as I had mentioned in one of my earlier post, MMC will be corporatised. The Medical Act(Amendment 2012) will come into force after almost 5 years being passed by Parliament. I have been waiting for this amendment to take place as it will put certain rules and regulations in place. The regulation can be read over HERE.Â
The 2 most important new rules that will affect everyone will be the specialist registration and APC renewal. Firstly, APC renewal from 2020 will be limited to those who have at least 20 CPD points/year and an indemnity insurance. Indemnity insurance will become mandatory for APC renewal. I was informed that the CPD collection will start officially from July 2018 till June 2019, most likely under MMA and Academy of Medicine. MMA is working hard to standardised everything with a phone app being developed. Once you have the points, you can apply for APC 2020 after June 2019. For those budding doctors who do not know what APC is, it is your ANNUAL PRACTISING CERTIFICATE. Without APC, you can’t practise clinical medicine. I know many GPs who do not have indemnity insurance. With this new rule, every doctor must have an indemnity insurance in order to practise medicine. Please visit MMA website for further information regarding indemnity insurance.
Secondly, the specialist register had been made mandatory under the law. The National Specialist Register (NSR) was first introduced in 2006 by the Academy of Medicine. This was in anticipation of the amendment to medical act 1971 which suppose to be tabled in Parliament in 2008. Unfortunately, with election along the way, it was delayed till 2012. Thus, it was optional and voluntary till 1/07/2017. From 1st July 2017, all specialist must be registered with NSR which will be handled by MMC, from now onwards. If your name do not appear in NSR, you CAN’T call yourself a specialist. If you continue to call yourself as a specialist, disciplinary action will be taken against you by MMC which includes suspension and fine. Â For those who have not registered, please do so by end of this year. From 1/01/2018, your name must appear in NSR in order to call yourself a specialist. NSR must be renewed every 5 years with a minimal CPD point of 100 in total. This applies for government specialist as well.
Another issue that is of concern are the fees that need to be paid. Since MMC will be corporatised, they have to generate their own revenue on top of MOH grant. Thus, as expected, fees will be increased. The APC renewal fee will be increased to RM 100/year from RM 50. This is not really a big increase as the RM 50 has been around since 197os. However, civil servants who were previously exempted from paying this fee will now need to pay themselves. The DG had issued a circular to all hospitals that all civil servants must pay the APC fee from 2018 onwards. This was followed by circulars by hospitals that all APC fee must be paid by the respective doctors directly to MMC and cannot be claimed(tidak boleh dituntut):
This also includes the Specialist registration fee of RM 1500 every 5 years. Please be informed that all specialist in MOH must also register with NSR by end of this year. If not, legally you can’t call yourself a specialist! Another issue you must understand is that gazettement by MOH is not the same as NSR registration. NSR has it’s on guideline on registration of specialist. For example, you can only get NSR registration after 1 year of post qualification working experience for internal medicine related field and 2 years for surgical related field:
“Effective January 2017, applicants must have at least ONE (1) year post qualification working experience for medical related specialties/fields of practice and at least TWO (2) years for surgical related specialties/fields of practice.”
This basically means, for those who finish Master’s, you are NOT a specialist after 6 months of gazettement as far as NSR is concerned! I hope KKM and MMC can streamline these requirements so that no confusion arises. Another interesting figure in the new fee structure is the Certificate of Good Standing(CGS) and translated documents fee! It use to be FREE but it will cost you RM 500 for CGS and RM 200 for translated documents! As far as I know, each CGS is only valid for 3 months! You will need this if you intend to do training overseas or migrating!
There is another interesting development in terms of compulsory service.Till 2008, we had 4 years compulsory service, which included 1 year housemanship. In 2008 when housemanship was made into 2 years, the compulsory service was reduced from 3 years to 2 years post housemanship. The total was still 4 years. We all know that what I had predicted many years ago had come true. Job is no more guaranteed in civil service. Housemanship is given under contract for a maximum of 3 years after which you will be given contract just to finish your compulsory service. Only about 50% of those who are completing housemanship will be given permanent post. How this selection will be done is being ironed out. So, what happens to those who are returning from overseas after completing their housemanship overseas? Firstly, your housemanship must be recognised by MMC. NOT all housemanship outside Malaysia is recognised by MMC. Secondly, you may need to do certain postings which you did not do overseas before being given full MMC registration. The question now is , would you be able to get a job in MOH ?
To “overcome” this issue, DG has issued a new circular dated 6/07/2017 which is rather interesting. If you are a self sponsored student from overseas and have done at least 2 years of clinical practise post housemanship in a recognised country, you can be exempted from the 2 years compulsory service. If you are returning from overseas and are eligible for full registration from MMC without any need for additional training AND unable to get a job in MOH within 6 months, you are EXEMPTED from compulsory service! This is going to open another can of worms! This basically means you will be able to open a GP clinic immediately, under trained and flooding the market with GPs. This also means that if you do not get a job in MOH, you have practically no chance of specialising in any field except the Family medicine program under AFPM. So, if you are returning from overseas assuming to continue your post-graduate training in Malaysia, you may be in for a surprise! It is another way of saying, sayonara! We will be having almost 5-6000 graduates by next year waiting for housemanship alone! Imagine how many will be waiting for MOship locally alone!
Compulsory Service Exemption Request Form
(source: Deputy DG presentation at MMI conference)
For those who do not have minimum entry requirement, please be aware that you may not be considered for housemanship at all! It is in the pipeline. Well, if only they had listened to all those who voiced out their concerns almost 10 years ago, we will not be in this situation! We are very well-known for creating a problem and then trying to solve it, by creating more problems! No one plans for long-term. Everyone thinks with a knee jerk reaction!
Happy 60th Merdeka Day……..
Source:
For Future Doctors: The New Rules and Regulations ………..for better or worst?
