New docs may have to wait a year for housemanship

Source: The Star
              30 March 2015

PETALING JAYA: Newly qualified doctors must now wait longer – up to a year after their graduation – to take up their stints as housemen at certain training hospitals instead of the previous period of six months.

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Krishna Kumar said that with medical graduates now being given the choice to choose the hospitals to be trained in under the e-houseman system and the long waiting lists in some hospitals, the waiting time could be longer.

Prior to the e-houseman system, which was introduced this year, the average waiting time was about six months.

“The waiting time is getting longer and longer, especially in the more popular urban hospitals, including the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

“We must have an entrance examination to screen medical graduates for the best candidates,” he said, adding that the bottle neck was reaching a “critical stage”.

Last month, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya announced that housemen could choose the hospitals for their internships through the new system.

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