My friend asked me to update about the process to apply for House Officer position here in Malaysia especially for those who graduated from Ireland and UK ( the process is different if you graduate from medical school in Malaysia or India or Indonesia or Mesir etc). To be honest, it is easier for you to know what documents and where to go earlier just to avoid confusion later on ( based on my personal experience).
1. MMC
As soon as you graduate, you need to start thinking what documents do you need because it is easier to apply all of that when you are still in Ireland especially when you need to apply for nombor pendaftaran sementara from MMC ( Malaysian Medical Council and it is different from KKM). So the boring part about applying this is to prepare all documents and all the copies need to be certified. One important thing about Irish University graduands, make sure you name on your degree certificate is similar with the one on you IC. For example in my case, my uni did not write 'binti' before my dad's name or in my friend's case they spelt her name wrong or they put your dad's name as your first name. So, you need to get 'Surat Akuan Sumpah' to prove that you are in fact the person as stated in that cert. Get it, get it? I know...it is such a hassle. I did mine at Istana Kehakiman Putrajaya and it costs RM 5 for that letter. To avoid this, just ask your uni to spell your full name correctly with binti/bin/ anak perempuan/ anak lelaki as stated on your IC. So, the documents are :
- Provisional Registration form and Fitness to Practise declaration form which can be download from MMC website.
- 2 passport sized photos
- 1 certified copy of Basic Medical Degree
- 1 certified copy of academic transcript encompassing the results of whole training period ( some universities do no provide this unless you ask them to. So, make sure you ask for this BEFORE you board the plane to come back for good)
- 1 certified copy of IC
- 1 certified copy of birth certificate
- 1 certified copy of SPM certificate
- RM20 processing fee by money/postal order payable to “The Registrar Medical Practitioner”
- Surat Akuan Sumpah (if you need one)
MMC is a bit fussy when it comes to completeness of all the documents. Just make sure you prepare all the documents correctly and certified by the right person so that you don't need to go their office more than once. For those who live outside KL or Selangor, you can just post all the documents to their office but make sure you call them in case they do not receive any of your documents. If they found your documents are not complete, you will not be getting your nombor pendaftaran sementara and you can't proceed the next step to get the job! By the way, it takes 5 working days for them to give you the MMC number and the cert. I know..right? This gives you another reason why you should make sure you get the documents right before going all the way to their office, ok? You either can collect the cert at their office or you can ask them to post it to you if you live outside KL/Selangor and again, remind them to do so!
2. SPA
You need to fill in SPA8i online form on SPA website. You can either after do it before or after or while waiting for you MMC no. I did before I applied for MMC no and I forgot to update my MMC no on this online form until one of the SPA officers called me to update it. So, just make sure you update your MMC no once you get it. Easy peasy this one.
3. KKM
You need to fill a form from KKM which I honestly do not remember the name of the form. Sorry for my pregnancy brain. You can download it from KKM website or some of my friends said you can just go to KKM office in Putrajaya and fill the form there but remember to bring all the documents that they ask you to. Yes, doctors, another set of documents. I actually just emailed them. If you choose to email them, you need to scan all the documents and the form as well ( as it needs your passport photo on it) and send them in PDF format. The documents needed are :
- 1 certified copy of IC
- 1 certified copy of SPM certificate
- 1 certified copy of degree certificate
- 1 certified copy of temporary registration certificate (the one you apply from MMC)
- 1 certified copy of marriage certificate if you are married ( high five!)
- 1 certified copy of resignation letter for those who had previously resigned from KKM
4. SPA again
Once you get your MMC number and fill in the SPA8i form, you have to call SPA to in a way, book your interview date. Anddddddd to be honest, the queue is super duper long and they conduct the interview every 2-3 months now. So, the faster you get everything sorted, the faster you get the interview by that I mean less than 6 months (at least). Yup that is the current situation now. I know some people who already graduated since February but until now still waiting for the call. My interviewers actually quite surprised when I said I graduated in June because apparently it usually takes longer than 6 months.
5. SPA interview
So yeah the interview after months of waiting. They will email you all the details about your interview ie venue, time and documents that you need to bring ( yes another set of documents, my friends). Additional to your documents, you also need to bring a resume with an ID photo. One thing about the resume, make sure it is concise and not too long. One page is enough and only include the most recent one related to medicine. No need to mention you were AJK kebersihan kelas masa darjah 5. Seriously some people do that -.-'. Common sense, people. Don't forget to bring the original copies of all the documents. I even brought my scroll because of my certificate's size is too big. Seriously, I felt people were judging me when they saw me walked into the waiting room with my red, big scroll. I had no choice.
My personal experience with the interview, both of my interviewers love my resume because it is neat. I'm honestly not sure what they are talking about but thanks to my husband who did last minute editing on my resume. Some people said, the resume is not that important because their interviewers just look at it once and no further question. Well, it was different with mine, they, in fact, asked me if I have extra copies of my resume since there are two of them. Thankfully, I brought 3 copies. Both of them asked about the research that I listed in the resume. We talked about it for 5 minutes. They also asked about relief mission that I joined. Before they proceeded to ask me medical questions, one of them actually said, I love your resume and he just looked at my resume without asking any questions until the session ended. I guess, try to prepare a good and neat-looking resume and don't take it too easy about it. Who knows, you will get my interviewers. Regarding the medical questions, one of the interviewers asked me about dengue. She gave me a clinical scenario in A&E. A 34 year old lady came to A&E with 3 day history of high grade fever. She asked me how to manage this patient. For every step of management, I just include the reason why ( habit daripada medical school). Then she said, I want to ask you the differential diagnosis but you kinda answered it. So, she jumped to pathogenesis of dengue fever and management of shock. And that was it. It was only 15 minutes including the introduction and question from my resume. Alhamdulillah it went well ( I guess?).
Some of the questions that my friends got :
- name of our health minister
- name of DG
- Vape issue
- bukti ilmu perubatan in Quran or something like that ( the interviewers did ask him to recite certain surah too!)
- Budget 2016
- Wawasan 2020
- 7R's regarding prescribing
- Dengue
- Typoid
- MI
- Neonatal jaundice
- Management of asthma
- Diabetes
- Antenatal care in Ireland vs Malaysia
- Management of pre-eclampsia
- Management of gestational diabetes
- Breech pregnancy
- Acute abdominal pain
These are topics that my friends got. It all depends on your interviewers anyway. Most important thing is just be prepared because you want to show them that you are a safe doctor.
That's it. I hope you find it useful and if anyone wants to add on something just leave your comments. Sharing is caring. Good luck applying for those who just started to apply and happy waiting for the placement for those who already done with the interview including yours truly. -.-'
