‘Don’t work as locums’

Do it and your whole life is finished, medical grads told

PUTRAJAYA: Medical graduates should have patience and refrain from taking up temporary jobs in clinics while waiting for their housemanship posting.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam warned them against taking up such jobs following reports that such graduates have started working in private clinics.

“I strongly advised them against working as locums because if legal action is taken against them, their whole life is finished. I urge medical graduates not to take the risk,” he said.

“They should be patient and wait for their housemanship placement,” Dr Subramaniam said.

He said efforts were underway to shorten the waiting time for housemanship placements.

“Medical graduates are not registered with the Malaysian Medical Council and do not possess a practising certificate to become medical officers. Therefore, they cannot simply work.

“Don’t use the fear of forgetting what you have learned as an excuse to do something illegal as you can be charged with impersonating a doctor,” he said after chairing the ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting yesterday.

Dr Subramaniam suggested graduates use their free time to update their knowledge by reading and attending short courses.

“You can do a lot of things but you can’t treat patients. You can be attached with a doctor to watch and learn but you can’t be a locum and start treating patients,” he said.

He added that there had been cases where doctors were charged with hiring medical graduates as locums in their clinic.

He assured the graduates that his ministry was working to shorten the waiting time and suggestions had been put forward to the Public Service Department (PSD), where the plan was to reduce the interim period to four to five months from the current six to nine months.

There are only about 5,000 slots a year. The ministry is also open to the idea of placing medical graduates at armed forces hospitals and medical centres as a measure to shorten the waiting time.