7 Steps To Housemanship in Malaysia 2017

The road to housemanship in Malaysia is a rather lengthy one since last year. At least 6 months of wait is inevitable. I myself had waited for nearly 9 months (6 months if counted from day of convocation) for my placement. I never knew that the waiting period was that long until I experienced it myself. The time is bad for our profession (perhaps only applicable to junior doctors) currently. So please don't choose this career unless you really have the interest and dedication. 

Step 1: Graduating from Medical School

This is the most important & crucial step hahaha. After passing professional exams, there will be many paper works to be done so please spare some time settling Step 2 & 3 before shooting off for holidays haha. 

Step 2: Offline Application for Provisional Registration at MMC

The complete guideline & forms required for the application for Provisional Registration can be downloaded from official MMC website (Click here ). 

There isn't a need to wait till convocation for MD/MBBS certificate only to apply for provisional registration (which will be time wasting), a Dean's letter stating that you have passed the professional exam and eligible for graduation is sufficient for the time being. The Results transcript of whole course & MD/MBBS certificate can be submitted later on after our convocation.

It is compulsory to CERTIFY all the photocopied documents before submitting to MMC.

The application should be SUBMITTED IN PERSON to MMC. Please seek advice from MMC if you have difficulties doing so. For my batch, the person submitting the application on behalf of others will need to show a Letter of Authorization + photocopy of IC and one person was limited to 3 applications including him/herself.

It will take about 2-3weeks time (might be faster if there are only a few applications) for our Qualifiable for Registration letter to be done. This letter is the key to proceed to Step 3. 

Meanwhile, your provisional registration certificate will only be given & needed after we get our hospital placement. 

Step 3: Online application for Pegawai Perubatan Gred UD 41 post in SPA/PSC website

You can actually start filling up this online application while waiting for Qualifiable for Registration letter from MMC. However, you can only complete the application form & submit once you get the Reference No. from the Qualifiable for Registration Letter. 

The application guideline can be downloaded from SPA website ( Click Here ). 

Please remember to submit the correct contact no. & email address!

The waiting time for the interview might varies with your batch. During my time, unfortunately I waited like 5 months to get called for interview as I was told that SPA grouped the applicants from June-December 2016 into one single batch for interview in February-March 2017

While waiting for interview, other than doing the necessary preparations for it, you can also spend the time on travelling, working or simply enjoying life at home. Haha. Finding something else to do is the best way to kill time and preventing yourself from getting unemployment depression. 😏 reading those messages speculating when will the interview be conducted or no. of applicants expected to be absorbed into first intake etc will only make your life confusing and miserable, so it's better to stay away from that. 

Step 4: SPA/PSC Interview

Ideally applicants will be informed of the interview dates 1 month before the first day of the interview month via email (Can check it in SPA website too!). However, for my batch, we were only informed of the date 1 week before the first day of the interview month. So it seems a bit unfair to the people going for interview during the first week.

The documents required for the interview are all listed in the email, might be different from the list circulated in Whatsapp lol, so it's always better to refer to the official email you received!

The interview itself lasts for about 15-30 minutes. It is conducted individually and there will be 2 interviewers, usually consists of non medical person from SPA +  medical doctor from KKM. However, it might also end up with both interviewers from SPA/ KKM alone in rare cases. 

Please dress up smartly & politely as first impression is indeed important in interviews. Baju Kurung is a good choice for girls while formal wear with blazer is the usual attire for guys.

While for the questions asked during interview, fret not, as I'm sure that there will be many people circulating 'past year questions' in the whatsapp group. 😂 Alternatively you can also google it up, which will lead you to the many bloggers sharing their own experiences. 

Although the Passing rate is extremely high, please be well prepared and confident (yet humble) during the interview as they somehow rank us based on our interview performance, and the ranking determines how early we gonna start working. Pray hard too! 

Interview results typically will be announced after a month from the last day of interview by checking it online or via email . However, for my batch, it was delayed for another 2 weeks likely to be due to the massive no. of applicants. In addition to that, we were no longer be informed of our ranking unless we asked SPA ourselves in person or via calls. 

Step 5: Grabbing A Hospital Placement via Ehousemen 

Everything will be fast & furious after the interview result is out lol. From my experience, due to the delay in results announcement, we were informed of the eHO application date right after a few days knowing our interview results, and the system opened 1 week after the email notification while PTM was 2 weeks after. However, unfortunately, only the people who are absorbed into the first intake will receive the email from KKM. 

Once you have received the email, you can now register an account in ehousemen (Click Here) by clicking the ' Pendaftaran Baru', and following that you will receive an email from the system with your registration information/details in it. 

While waiting for the system to open for application (usually a week after the notication), you can read up on eHousemen manual available here. Good news is we no longer need to fill up the particulars for family members during eHO application, and most of the particulars are already filled up in the system 😁, so it only take less than a minute time to get into the hospital selection page! 

Besides, please remember to save the contact no. available in eHO website into your phone so that u can dial immediately in case of 'emergencies' like errors etc during eHO application. 

Due to the large numbers of applicants being online at the same time, the page will load slower than normal and some might face error message while clicking next page or submitting hospital selection. This unfortunately happened to me, I couldn't submit the hospital of my choice no matter how many times I clicked 'Submit' although there were many posts available. So I had to relogin and choose another hospital upon advice by eHO staff. 

After submitting the application successfully, a page with 4 download links will appear and please download all of them i.e Surat Tawaran, Syarat-Syarat Kontrak, Panduan Mengisi Borang Kontrak & Borang Kontrak. However some might still receive error message when clicking on the download links, so alternatively you can relogin and download the documents later on. 

There will be a lot of errands needed after securing a place in the hospital of your choice. The documents required are those that are listed in the Surat Tawaran, not the ones listed in Whatsapp message as the list might be outdated 😂 All the photocopied documents to be submitted to assigned Hospital need not be certified. 

Besides from preparing the documents, this is also the time for you to start preparing other necessities not stated in offer letter eg as below:

1. Rubber stamp (Format might varies with hospitals, so please consult your seniors working in the respective hospital before making one! And for the provisional registration no. needed in the stamp, you can either get it from the MMC cert or check online at here)

2. Name Tag 

3. EPF Account (just bring along your IC and your application will be done within a few minutes using the kiosks available at the EPF building) 

4. Income Tax Account (can be applied online or directly at the LHDN office) 

5. Bank Account Statement

6. Stationeries

7. Medical equipments 

8. Submission of Senarai Semak Penempatan to KKM by email/mail (this can also be submitted while waiting for SPA interview by replacing the Provisional Registration Cert with Qualifiable for Registration letter and submit the cert in a later time once you get it from MMC) 

Oh ya, there was quite a bit of confusion regarding Tarikh Matikan Setem Hasil during my time, as some were telling that the date need to be as the same date as first day of PTM. In actual fact, the stamp can be matikan on any working days before PTM, not necessary must be on the day of PTM. 

Step 6: Collecting Provisional Registration Certificate at MMC

You can only start collecting it after eHO application and the day of collection will be fixed by MMC following alphabetical order of the names if the no. of applicants is large just like my batch. The list will be shown in MMC website. The document needed to bring along is as stated in the announcement in MMC, i.e Certified copies of Surat Tawaran (1st 2 pages only). 

If you have yet to submit the certified photocopies of Results Transcripts & Medical Degree (as mentioned in Step 2), you can submit them at this point of time too. 

Step 7: Attending Program Transformasi Minda (PTM) 

The location of PTM is only announced 1 week before PTM via eHO, and regarding how they distribute us into different locations, I could only say for my batch, it was distributed according to hospitals, not entirely by the state of the hospital we were posted. Usually will have HOs from at least 2 different hospitals at one location. 

The documents & things to bring to PTM are all listed in Surat Panggilan PTM downloadable from eHO once location of PTM is disclosed. 

PTM is a 5-day program, typically starts at 2pm (registration) on Monday and ends at 1pm on Friday. 

That's all for now!