I have been very quiet over the last 2 months. I am sure those who are in the private sector(specialist) would know the reason. All of us are undergoing a huge heartache due to a change in the policy of LHDN/IRB to disregard any income declared under our own company (Sdn Bhd). For those who do not know, private specialist are independent contractors in a private hospital. We are not paid a salary by the hospital, thus we are not employed by the hospital. Basically, our income is the fee paid by the patient as what we charge, based on PHFSA act minus 10-15% administrative fee by the hospital. Our fees are limited by the government BUT not the hospital charges. Thus, to manage our tax better, we form our own company where the income is channelled. This practice has been going on for close to 30 years since private hospitals started in this country. Unfortunately, as the government tries to get more income from taxes, the rule has suddenly been changed. Effective mid of this year, a letter from IRB has declared that all income generated by a specialist in a private hospital MUST be subjected under personal income tax! AND it does not end there, we are being asked to redeclare our income tax from 2013 and pay the penalty for the difference not paid! AND we have to do that by 15/12/2016 to receive a reduced penalty rate of 15-20% under the amnesty period introduced by PM from March 2016. Now you know why I was very quiet over the last 2-3 months! The penalty and tax arrears can cost hundreds of thousands of our hard-earned money, working day and night.
Coming to our Budget 2017. In August 2016, I wrote about the soon to be introduced contract HO post to reduce waiting period for housemanship. Well, it has been confirmed in this budget. 2600 contract post will be created by December 2016 to cater for the shortage. He also mentioned that contract post will also be created for dentist and pharmacist but that is nothing new as it has been done. Unfortunately, the budget is silent on what happens to these contract post after they complete housemanship. Will this shorten the waiting period? Personally I don’t think so but it may shorten by 1-2 months for a short period of time. Always remember that starting from this year (2016), ALL medical schools in this country will be producing graduates and those who started to produce graduates about 4 years ago will be producing maximum number of graduates from this year. Another question is how they will select candidates for permanent and contract post? My prediction: probably government sponsored and public university graduates may be given preference and those who do well in the interview might be given priority as well. What happens after you complete housemanship? MO post are also FULL!
Another interesting development is the introduction of a new grade for specialist known as Grade U56. As we all know, since the time based promotion was introduced in 2010, there is a bottle neck at U54 as all specialist of 9 years of service will be automatically promote to U54. Unfortunately, no JUSA C promotion has been coming since the last 2 years as there are not enough post or money to do that. Thus, the creation of U56 is to relieve the anxiety among all these specialist and to encourage them to stay. I know many U54 and even JUSA C specialist resigning from government sector but with the recent IRB ruling as above, private sector may not be as lucrative as what you expect it to be. You will end up paying 26-28% of your hard-earned money to the government. You will be working 3 months in a year for the government. Now you will know why the mood among all the private specialist is down over the last 2-3 months. For me, the introduction of U56 is just to say that you are not going to get JUSA C anytime soon or even forever!
The government is also planning to expand their Full Paying Patient scheme to more hospitals as another form of encouragement for specialist to stay in the government sector. I still remember almost 11 years ago, I was one of the SCHOMOS committee member involved in this discussion to introduce FFP.
Interestingly, there is also a suggestion in the budget to build “non-profit charitable” private hospital under government initiative. RM 20 Million loan is nothing as far as building a hospital is concerned.I wonder how long will that last unless the government comes up with a National Health Financing scheme…… How a private hospital is going to survive with government hospital rates? Isn’t that what the government is doing with government hospitals? Sometimes I don’t understand all this populist ideas which most of the time never happens.
Anyway, government servants will receive RM 500 bonus and no income tax reduction as promised. He did promise few years ago of a gradual personal income tax reduction when GST is in full force. AND what happened to “janji” of reduction in car prices? Janji dicapatikan, I guess.
Finally, today’s BUDGET speech in Parliament felt like a election public rally! Why do we need all the “public” icons to be made present and introduced? First time in the history of Malaysian Parliment!
I give up some times!
Pagalavan's Avatar 
Hi doctor, i stayed up all night just to read your point of view. Im a local graduate, & has been waiting 3 months for interview. Things didnt get any better.
Same here. Graduated at end of july still waiting for interview. Spa told us most probably this year would not have any interview anymore since the last interview is in October for those graduated at end of april. Thansk to HIM, all of us have to wait for nearly a year to get into housemanship since goverment has no money to accomodate us.
Interview waiting period is about 4-6 months. How can SPA call for interview if they got no post to offer?
Still some time to wait. Some Sunway Monash JPA scholars who graduated in November, 2015 only started their housemanship last month.
I am a well trained professional firefighter for 30 years and now i am watching the functioning of 10-15 days trained ‘Anggota Bomba Bantuan’ with hourly paid men (you can’t differentiate the ‘ABB’ with the ‘ori’ because their uniform are the same) who have to guard our live and property in contract basis, no more as a national service man anymore. Money v/s life. Your choice.
Err… bomba bantuan with 10 to 15 days training? Arent they danger to themselves….
How will be the rate of full paying patient? Will it be cheaper than private rate significantly? If Yes, private sector could collapse esp if it is expanded to KKs and outpatient clinics
It’s based on government fee schedule as what they are using for foreigners. It is almost same as private hospitals but drug and medication prices can be cheaper.
“2600 contract post will be created by December 2016 to cater for the shortage. He also mentioned that contract post will also be created for dentist and pharmacist but that is nothing new as it has been done. Unfortunately, the budget is silent on what happens to these contract post after they complete housemanship.
The next general elections would have ended before they complete housemanship.So, after they complete housemanship,it is possible that they have to take care of themselves.
Finally, todayās BUDGET speech in Parliament felt like a election public rally! Why do we need all the āpublicā icons to be made present and introduced? First time in the history of Malaysian Parliment!
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Therefore, First time in the history of Malaysia Parliament, MP of opposition walked out from the room while PM was tabling the 2017 budget.
On a note regarding the Sdn Bhd issue, there are various aspects that need to be considered, including the agreement between hospitals and the paid person whether as a Sdn Bhd or the doctor as an entity. While it has been declared as a Sdn Bhd income, the agreements and invoice may point to a ssingle person instead and is regarded as personal income and liable to personal income tax.
Plus, there were many instances when the Sdn Bhd entity had been abused in many ways to avoid taxes, including paying director’s fees to wife, children as means to reduce the taxable income. Or undeclared income with no proper documentation and provision of invoices on PRN basis. Not to mention other methods which were even more unscrupulous. It has been known that it is not easy to do accounts for Sdn Bhd for private doctors working in the hospitals. Company secretary may advice unscrupulous methods while auditors who comply with proper standards are not hired(as auditors are hired by clients and not by IRB, hence the issue of conflict of interest for auditors to say yes to everything to their clients to get hired).
IRB is looking into these on case by case basis. As the government is running out of money, all these financial taxes law will be strictly enforced.
P.S: Both of parents are consultant auditors with their own audit firms who had their fair share of experience with the ambiguity of private practice doctors with Sdn Bhd. And the one encouraging for sdn bhd formation is nt auditors usually, but those involving in company secretarial.
Yes, i am not denying these facts but to ask us to backdate for 3 years is unfair. They should have started from next year and audit each company individually for past years
Good evening Dr Pagalavan . I might need some enlightenment regarding the budget 2017 . For the contract based HO, shall the graduates under the government scholarship (where 10 years of bond applies ) affected as well ? Do they still need to undergo the assessment to get permanent MO post or they will work under government for 10 years straight ? Thanks .
I have a feeling that those with the older JPA scholarship will be given permanent post. But the new ones from this year are convertible loans.
All the budget are totally nonsense! Until now, we have to face everything with lack of resources and there are still not enough consumable items in every districts hospital. Whenever we raise this issue to the MOH, the answers surely dissapointed. How can you perform the surgery when you have lack of equipments that can still work even in general hospital? The expenses for maintenance very costly. As a goverment servant, we have to treat all the patients that has been send to us including those illegal immigrant (PATI). All those with major injuries, absconded cases..this surely cost a lot of money. Cutting the budget, give us some irrational hope for us to face. Create a new grade 56 doesn’t relief our stress or show us a good sign to move on from all those challenge we have to face everyday. Be realistic to all politicians out there. This is not our country supposed to be. Don’t kill our future generation with this kind of nightmare. Raise the taxes, cut the budget, seize all opportunity for new medical/dental student to get work after 5 years they face in uni. Not to mention all other proffesions. And yes, they have to pay all the study fees eventhough they don’t stand a chance to be even HO.
The question is : who let them to rob the country?
It is none other the ruthless campaigning tactics of the ruling coalition and the naivete of the masses.
The public is blind to the problems we see. They spend more time worrying about renaming hot dogs and root beers, rather than thinking about the tax raises and budget cuts, or how will these policy changes affect them.
I agree with the h.o. contract basis. Get rid of the deadwood. I don’t care how much money you spent on your degree if you’re incompetent you don’t deserve to be a doctor. Ask the parents who complain about this to pay for lives of patients their incompetent children cost if they still want to work as doctors.
Agree. I see deadwood killing patients and wasting resources on a daily basis. Many hos/ new mos when asked does the patient has any signs of inflammation will answer- oh, crp not taken, out of reagent. Bloody hell, need an expensive crp to tell me that.
I applaud that the new hos should be given contract to weed out the deadwood. But i question the hypocrisy. I think all current mos should be on contract too. And permanent post is based on merit and local instituition interview- just like elsewhere. The current time-based promotion is breeding deadwood everywhere. These deadwood even can get promoted to ass licking posts in headquarters to make decisions on the future n livelihood of hardworking specialists. It is unfair. It is unfair that the more competent among us are on contract and the incompetent deadwood who always abscond, make poor judgement and waste resources are on permanent posts.
It is the elephant in the room no one wants to discuss right?
Btw medical students and parents, if your child is not fit to become a doctor, please don’t be selfish. Merit is great huh, until it has to be applied on your own kid. Please do something else, you are murdering the profession. And all you greedy politicians and contractors out there who built these medical schools and flood the system with incompetent dangerous doctors. Your courses produced shameful incompetent doctors.
Welcome to Malaysia! I have been talking about these issues for donkey years! Who listens?
I agree with the m.o. contract basis as well. Complacency is bad for the progress of our health care. Our patients should come first. Not the wants of naive parents who care more for “prestige* of having their children doing medicine. Medicine now has become like the Nights Watch. Used to be an honorable calling. Now filled with substandard quality with the occasional exceptional individuals who are truly dedicated to the art.
Agree with m.o.s being under contract basis as well. The time based system is bad. It does not encourage one to improve oneself. Just stay long enough and you’d get the UD54 even as a medical officer. It causes complacency and laziness. In the end the patient suffers.
If that’s the case, I would also like to suggest that specialist and consultants be given contract too. Some are just beyond malignant or bad attitude problems, treating subordinates like piece of sh*t yet because of the system you all described about the lousy ho (ie not able to do much if on permanent posts) hence the specialist and consultant still lingering around and in fact got promoted and some even become HOD or state physician! How irony. Double standards.
Though I agree about having both house officers and medical officers on contract basis, there is inherent danger to the community when they finish the contract as well. For example, if these house officers did not secure a permanent job in the government post housemanship and after getting their full registration, they would probably be doing locum or even opening up GP practices like mushrooms after the rain (please correct me if I am wrong) With their half-baked knowledge and incompetency, the community would be at danger really.
Its probably inappropriate to compare but UK,Ireland, and Australia would never let a doctor to practice on his/her own right after internship. Everyone has to go for a certain period of training in hospitals under direct supervision by senior doctors and consultants, and then get signed off before they can be on their own, even GPs. They are producing safe doctors, unlike Malaysia!
We still have 4 years compulsory service. That’s why the contract will be extended till you finish your compulsory servive
John , specialists and consultants are not there by mistake unlike most house officers and medical officers. They are there because they have been tried and tested. Perhaps you should look into yourself and see why they treat you as such instead of blaming everyone else. P.s. by the way you’re writing I assume you’re a house officer or a junior medical officer
Sorry to potong stim in your assumptions of me being a junior doctor. I am a consultant registered in NSR. I said that because I always see a one way finger pointing towards the juniors. When junior make mistakes the senior harp on it as if end of the world. But if a senior is malignant that’s OK and claim that they are attested. So the stupid hierarchy is maintained for the junior to ass lick and bodek. Never reflect and see whether they could improve their EQ and what’s the use of just having IQ? If you say these malignant consultants are time tested so it’s ok then I do think that many of our politicians are also well tested and experienced, so don’t complain if they are corrupt or arrogant just because they are there for umpteen years.
Many consultants when reaching the age of retirement, had rather sit out their years of seniority by doing nothing so thay they will not be affected and able to retire with the lucrative pension. Not all, but this has encourage complacency as people with passion and enthusiasm lacks the seniority and authority to make a change while those with authority/seniority lacks the passion and enthusiasm. What an irony. Thankful for some who maintained their professional ism and still trying to make the change, but the complacency lies across all from consultant to house officers, regardless of race. This complacency attitude is truly 1Malaysia, unfortunately.
John is a Doctor has made a pertinent point. Some of these specialists are treating their junior as donkeys and are shouting and screaming at the juniors through no fault of theirs but purely to show their power and authority. And some are extending the rotations on flimsy excuses. Some even tell the housemen who are working from 7am to 11pm that they will only be given one hour for dinner and that no lunch break will be given. This is a very toxic cycle and if not stopped will be repeated by the same juniors on others when they become seniors.
I totally agree with John Is A Doctor.
Really sorry but some of these senior malignant doctors and doctors who hve altitude like dr lisa will actually make the junior doctors in the future become worst and dear malingnant senior doctor please please please do not treat your junior doctor like **** in front of the patient. Please consider they hv feeling too. Tq
Something good that ive heard in a while
I totally agree with John is a doctor.
There are way too many dr’s like ‘remove the deadwood’ and ‘dr Lisa’ around. Way too many. One who thinks that their superbly trained and cocky as s***. Please give these junior doctors a break. We were one junior doctors, you guys were once junior doctors who knew nuts during the s***calls. Because there are seniors like the two said doctors above that we are producing lousy junior doctors. Selfish, unwilling to share the knowledge, and one who thinks they are way too competent, while waiting for their time to leave to private.
Alas, it’s a country full of politicians and bereft of statesman.
The so called leaders cannot see beyond their nose.Even if they did , its Ringgit Malaysia.
Tax Arrears of hundreds of thousands or even millions! Wow… No wonder more and more youngsters wanna be doctors! Yet many senior consultants are trying to discourage them from taking up this lucrative business haha how irony! On one hand you told others don’t do medicine for its money but one the other hand you showed that doctors can earn that a lot of money! Not convincing right? Haha…
We are talking about arrears and penalty. And the amount depends on each individual and how many hours he works. In any profession, you can earn the same amount of money if you put in the same amount of afford and time. I had written about this many times before
who is this Dr lufti lokman that PM introduce in the budget announcement? this young 28 yrs old Dr graduated in 2013 and now is the CEO of hospital beyond borders? when did he completed his housemanship? did he completed his compulsary services? Has he acquired enough experience as a doctor to set up a hospital? it all reminds me of ‘Dr Winson Seow’.
As far as I know, he has completed housemanship and fully registered with MMC. He suppose to be currently working in KK sg Buloh. Please check MMC website
He is the son of the ex-dean of UKM who specialises in ENT. Because of him, the ex dean created the UNPAD-UKM twinning programme as he could not get into direct UKM with his pointers. Even as a medical student, he showed not much interest in clinical but who can punish a dean’s son? Plus he had his charms and connections via his father. He is more suited towards public health and community work out of the clinical that is for sure.
As mention in Bajet2017, the contract position will start with December housemen intake. This also impacting them when they converted as Contract MO. My Question is, will this effect the current housemen that is already a permanent housemen? Once the finish their housemenship, will they be converted to Contract MO or remain permanent MO. Let say they finish HO on 2018/9.
There are certain countries that use the contract based system. Ireland for one. It is contract based (annual) until you become a consultant. Job applications have to be put in every year. One is expected to move around the country and abroad for fellowships prior to getting a consultant post.
It has its pros and cons. It does not allow for any certainy for future planning. For example you don’t dare buy a house and settle down because you never know where you’ll have to move to… hence many irish graduates leaving Ireland for health systems that allow for more certainty (one of the reasons anyways)
I have to say however it does encourage competitiveness. Everyone knows they have to be reasonably good in order to secure a competitive job for the next year. It also means that popular posts are not clogged up by a few people who refuse to progress and warm the seat too long till its burnt.
The perception of doing medicine is it provides a secure job once you graduate. With contract based work and with the MOH being the only employer, unfortunately it will become one of the more insecure occupations available.
Unfortunately here in malaysia there is no such thing as fair competition. As long as your skin in of a certain color and you pray to a certain direction you’d get preferential treatment.
if a CEO of hospital beyond borders is still in d goverment payroll while he is serving in cambodia , and not serving 2 yrs compulsary service while other MO are slaving in msian hospital something is just.not right. it just dont add up.
you should really visit the blog and read how he runs the hospital, no government money involved. read before throwing any false accusation.
yes I have read his blog and facebook which is very impressive. always bragging about his achievement. I wonder how much of the budget $20million allocation he is getting? I am not jealous or accusing just trying to find answers. malaysian are very complicated people full of cables n connection.
then you should have the answer to your question š he doesn’t run the hospital by himself. he is still an MO in KKM. the organization hired an obgyn and a neurosurgeon Cambodians (both completed post grad training in the respective field). the monthly expenses for the hospital currently coming from contributions from all over the world, including his own father. they are planning to have the hospital run eventually by itself by charging the right people who come to seek treatment.
laymen, thank you for your info. ermm so in this case the CEO of a hospital is employed by KKM . interesting. !
No… in this case the Father runs the show, and the son gets the name! š
How to declare locum tax ?
Most of the locums are almost forgetting the number hour/day or location.
Is it still easy to get locum post nowadays?
The person who receive any payment from a job done must delare their income
Hi Dr,
After reviewing all of the posts, I have been doubtful whether or not to enter a Medical assistant course after my degree. I have a passion on doing medical stuffs but it was dragged till my degree almost ends (sad tho)
Would like to ask is there any “surviving chance” for MA in M’sia?
do you suggest any institutions or overseas recognized by government?
MAs are still needed but unfortunately it is mainly a government service job. You can try to do some postgraduate degree which can be recognised overseas. I am not sure about the recognition status of MA degrees in other country
I wonder whether medical assistant jobs are recognised in the Middle East countries like our nursing jobs. Maybe you can find out more information since the pay is good over there.
most comments above are valid, and toxicly influencing each other like a vicious cycles
1. incompetent and corrupted government – anyone that criticise them will be marginalised and thrown to other places, no funding means no surgery or CT scan regardless you are the top surgeon or not
2. rakyat voting for bn. yes and no, even if we want to kick the bn, we can’t , due to gerrymandering , samseng act, poor and uneducated that just want goodies and etc
3. specialist exerting their superiority and bullying the younger doc, not realizing different specialists have their limitation. You can’t expect surgeon to treat depression and psychiatrist was slammed for not able to treat viral urti. specialist here are just not humble , supportive enough and just because you are a specialist, you are just good in ur field and not other, even specialist gp or A n E is more useful when compared to ENT when it comes to bone fractures and most of the bread and butter issues
4. incompetent junior and not willling to work hard and listen , they are always missing in action, spoon feed and etc. Their attitutes are deplorable.
all these toxic environment are influencing each other , the end points are death of patients and license to kill. It will only get worst . Abandoned the ship or sink together or change any of the factors above. YOUR CHOICE.
A Career in Medicine
https://www.facebook.com/notes/punna-wong/a-career-in-medicine/10153509021405849
Hi doctor. I am a local medical student who feels quite devastated by the contract system. I mean I am not even scared if competency is the only value to be assessed before you are given a permanent post. Just be more hardworking than the others then you will eventually make it. But i believe this is not the case. Favourism, prejudice and even LUCK will all affect our chance to get into permanent post. How they are going to assessed every houseman FAIRLY? What if there is a housemen who is competent and have great passion in medical field end up get dumped into private practice just because of his very bad luck ( for example, getting some very toxic supervisor?)
The latest post from the MMI said that those who passed MRCP part 1 during HO will be subjected into fast track and may be able to complete HO in 16 months. There are a lot of confusing information about MRCP on the internet and I would like to know more, for example when we can take it? I hope I can get some insight regarding MRCP here.
Thank you so much
Welcome to Malaysia!
Yes, I do agree with you that being in Malaysia, nothing is transparent. What I gather is that passing Part 1 of MRCP or MRCS does not mean automatically you will be fast tracked or even get permanent post. It is just one of the criteria. I was informed that there will be an assessment committee be formed in each state and hospital to assess and determine which HO will be given fast track and which not. So, it is not as simple as passing Part 1 of certain exams etc. Same goes to permanent post for MO.
Eventually, all HO post will be under contract and the government is NOT obliged to provide job to everyone. It is the same in most other countries as well. All current permanent HO post will eventually be converted to MO post from what I gather.
MRCP Part 1 can be taken after 1 year of being in service, as far as I know unless it has changed.
be a houseman first. You may probably not want to take MRCP after u become a houseman..lol
Hi doctor. Thanks so much for replying. Currently for the contract HO system, you wrote in your blog that 2600 contract post will be introduced. However I believe our medical graduates every year is much more than that. Does that mean that some will get permanent HO post ? How are they going to divide that who to give contract and who to offer permanent HO post?
Yes, at the moment permanent post will still be given. It depends on SPA interview as well as whether you are bonded to the government. THus, as I suggested, JPA scholars and public uni graduates might be given preference. That 2600 contract post is just to shorten the waiting period temporarily. The fact is : jobs for medical graduates is not guaranteed anymore. Again, being in Malaysia, there will never be transparency. So no one will ever know!
Our medical graduates will hit 5-7K from this year
Well I am going to graduate in 2018. I am a JPA holder from public university but by the point I am offered a HO post it is probably 2019 already. I guess that time all HO post will be contract based already and being JPA holder will probably not good enough. Hopefully being “competent” is enough. God bless future passionate medical graduates.
Hi, Doctor,did you have your Facebook page ? So you can share your article through social media and i believe most of the people would like to read your article.
My facebook has been around since 2010 and all article are shared on my facebook
can you share me the link? Thanks
I just return back to Malaysia after finished my MRCP.
I was talking to KKM last week, apparently there are no vancancy for gazzettement post at the moment.I can only apply for contract post with no guarantee to get a permanent post in the future. To make thing worse, they also has informed me that i will need to be in permanent post if i want to apply for Sub Specialty training in the future. The waiting time to get any offer would be around 9 months if not longer.
It is sad to think that so many people are doing medicine to be unemployed in this country.
Yes, MO post is also full. There are many HOs waiting on a floating post to be placed as MO.
Yes, you need to be employed as a KKM permanent post to be eligible for sub-specialist training as it is sponsored by KKM.As a contract post, you are not eligible for KKM sponsorship or even any government benefits.
I wonder why you came back in the first place!
I was wondering if you can register yourself as a specialist under NSR after you finish your gazettement if you are hired under contract basis? Or KKM can only hire you as an MO until you get your permanent position ?
NSR will not register you unless you are gazetted as a specialist . If you are not gazetted as a specialist from UK, you have to be gazetted over here.
if you are not a gazetted specialist, you are only eligible for MO post
So someone with mrcp can be gazetted even s/he is under contract ? They don’t have to be on permanent contract to undergo gazettement in Malaysia?
As far as I know,gazettement can be done under contract. BUT subspecilaity training is a different story.
Gazettement is a separate process from service status. The former is under MoH and the later is JPA.
Have you apply to public universities ?
Why can’t you get a permanent post as a specialist in the future especially with MRCP? The government needs more specialists with postgraduate qualifications and I am sure you would get your permanent post due to urgent need for specialists instead of house officers.
Technically there is no such thing as specialist post. The post are standard post occupied by both MOs and specialist (U41-u54). The difference is the specialist allowance. But for classification purpose, they will allocate some of the post under pegawai perubatan pakar. It is a convertible post.
I just return back to Malaysia after finished my MRCP.
I was talking to KKM last week, apparently there are no vancancy for gazzettement post at the moment.I can only apply for contract post with no guarantee to get a permanent post in the future. To make thing worse, they also has informed me that i will need to be in permanent post if i want to apply for Sub Specialty training in the future. The waiting time to get any offer would be around 9 months if not longer.
It is sad to think that so many people are doing medicine to be unemployed in this country.
I am curious to know where Nanma completed the MRCP as it can be done either overseas or in Malaysia. There is now considerable interest in medical graduates to study for MRCP but i understand it can only be undertaken in certain large hospitals.
I saw a letter stated that from Jan 2017 onwards hadiah latihan is no more available for those who want to pursue master in local university and they have to pay the master fee by their own, is that true?
Actually they have already started this year. Only some got the HLP, the rest are full paid salary.
Regarding the FFP, would it be more beneficial for specialist who are physicians or surgical-based specialist (eg O&G, orthopaedic, general surgery), in terms of getting extra income. Coz the latter has more surgical based procedures compared with the former.
Actually it is more towards subspecialty services. As for O&G, i am not sure whether you will have the energy to work after office hours
hi, thank you for you article.
i am a medical student who just graduated and still waiting to be called for interview.
i was wondering since some of us will be contract based houseman, will we be able to enjoy the incentives from government? are we considered as government servant?
It will be interesting to see what are the terms and conditions in the contract. Doubt there will be any EPF contribution. Absence from work may be deducted from monthly wages and certain allowances may not be made available.
The MoH has been employing doctors on contract for many years. If the terms of contract remains the same, the new contract HOs will enjoy the same terms and pays and allowances as normal service doctors with the simple difference of non permanency of employment, and hence not on the pension scheme. EPF will then be paid.
The crucial difference is contracts will be time based (usually 1-3 years), and to “sack” the officer, the contract is simply not renewed at the end of the tenure. It is otherwise VERY difficult to terminate a civil servant.
EPF will definitely be given. Is illegal not to give EPF!
Government servants on a permanent pensionable scheme will not be paid EPF. They do give an option to officers on confirmation of service, which option you want. If you opt for EPF, then you will continue to be paid EPF. If you opt for the pension scheme, the employer component in your EPF previously contributed, will be returned to the Gov, and you will then receive a pension when you retire. If you resign before you are due for retirement, then you lose your pension.
Whatever you have contributed yourself remains yours in EPF.
The salary will be the same but you will not enjoy the benefit of car or housing loan. Also, your leaves cannot be brought forward once the contract ends.
Housemen entering service now are given the option of choosing EPF or pension scheme. Most opt for EPF….and you cant go wrong!
Hi Dr. I’m very passion in science career. I’m not interested in engineering and anything related with mathematics. Thus, I was likely to choose medicine. But after reading your blog, I don’t feel its a right idea. So can you give me any suggestions in science career which will be worth it in upcoming years. Looking forward for your reply and thank you š
Hi Dr. My agent suggest me to do specialisation straight after 6 yrs of studies in russia or poland as europe countries do excuse to skip HO , with the reason of continuing specialisation in another europe country . As you just completed your MD in an europe country , you are able to finish your specialisation in 2-3 yrs in another europe country . When he suggest me germany , i told him that the country isn’t recognised in specialisation . He replied , 1st degree of medical must b recognized cuz it need practical whereas after specialization there wl b no housemanship ma so y u need recognition ?? Cuz its already have EUROPEAN BOARD APPROVAL and WHO. Is the statement is true?
Do you prefer me to study in private uni or overseas if I take up this medicine field?
Is MSU okay, Dr ?
Or can you help me out with other career related with medical only?
Thanks in advance.
never listen to agents! Each country has their own rules of recognition. Malaysian only recognises specialisation from UK, US, Australia, NZ mainly. You can search for recognised specialisation degree at http://www.nsr.org.my .Unless, you intend to continue practising in Europe. BTW, don’t think it is that easy to get a specialist trainee post in those countries.
If you intend to migrate, do in the country where you intend to migrate. If not, do locally !