LETTER | This article is one that is a long time coming and pertinent for the appropriate authorities to take note.

As far back as 14 years ago when I first joined as a houseman (HO) at a government hospital, it was impressed upon me that every practising medical doctor must have a valid APC (annual practising certificate) to practice medicine in Malaysia, be it at a government or private healthcare facility.

Without a valid APC, the practising doctor in question has broken the law. This is the basic premise that was impressed onto all of us junior doctors. This APC is issued by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC).

This is not an alien concept as many countries worldwide have such stipulations for their doctors to adhere to. Unfortunately, in all my years of working at government hospitals, I have never once received my APC at the turn of the new year on Jan 1or prior to that. I was told by my hospital that usually the APC will be physically made available only a few months down the line into the year of practice.

I was left perplexed because I know this is breaking the law but I chose to accept this practice as none of my colleagues, senior or junior, ever made a fuss. All they had to say was “biasa lah”. Bear in mind that it is the responsibility of the current practising facility to renew the APCs of their doctors annually. At times, I would receive my APC in the month of March or even later of the said practising year.

Fast forward a few years down the line, I have left the government service and am working at a private healthcare facility. Now the responsibility of applying for the APC is my own. Therefore I apply for the APC online, sometime in October so that I can receive it before the turn of the year. MMC encourages us doctors to apply ‘early’ so that they will have ample time to issue the APC for the following year.

In the last week of December, I had still not received my APC for the next year. At this point, I start to call MMC to find out why I had not received my APC. After multiple attempts to get through via the telephone hotline provided and going through much anguish in speaking to the appropriate persons at the APC department of the MMC, I was faced with blank questions such as “When did you apply, doctor?”, “Do you have the payment receipt?” (MMC charges us doctors to issue our APC), “How did you make the payment?”.

This left me further perplexed as MMC uses an online application and payment system for the APC. How could they not know who has applied, when they had applied and how the payment was made? It was explained to me that the online application system is often faulty and MMC is unable to keep track of applications and payments made. This was cited as the reason for delays in issuing the APC.

MMC also made another suggestion that maybe I should try applying even earlier. The following year, I practised without an APC till February. Come next year, I applied in May, waited and still had not received my APC in December. Again I went through the same process and again I was forced to practice without a valid APC for a few months the next year.

This has been an ongoing problem faced by myself and my fellow doctors for at least 20 years. Every year, we are given promises that MMC fails to keep when it comes to streamlining and improving the APC application and issuing system. Every year so many of us doctors are forced to practice without a valid APC and inadvertently break the law. Comments from MMC so far has been to question us back if we have provided the correct details and place blame on us for the delays. Apparently applying in May for the following year is not applying soon enough in my case.

In the last two years, we have been made more promises in that concentrated efforts have been taken to overhaul and privatise MMC and things will improve for the better once that plan is achieved. This year has come and is about to pass. I applied in May and waited till Aug, only to not receive my APC. Again I had to go through the same process of calling the MMC hotline.

I was not surprised that after multiple calls to all three numbers provided, nobody picked up the phone. I called 60 times before a lackadaisical voice at the other end picked up the call. I was again given many excuses and this time the staff even cited the ongoing changes at MMC as the reason. One month after my call, I received my APC in September.

Some of my fellow colleagues have had their APC lost in the mail and made to jump through hoops by MMC such as having to lodge a police report and making a fresh application and having to pay once more by. Repeated calls from us doctors for them to send our APCs’ through registered mail is ignored and excuses like “that is not our SOP” are dished out to us, a frustrated lot.

This issue must not continue to be swept under the rug anymore. Those that are sitting on the committee must take full responsibility for this ongoing fracas dating back to so many years and stop making excuses. I am not willing to practice without my APC anymore. I don’t want to be forced to break the law each year.

In the present day, the struggle is ongoing for us doctors. There is still no new CEO to take over the responsibility at MMC and our APC woes are continuing to date.

I have a niggling question that I want to ask MMC. MMC expects us doctors to practice as doctors in the most professional manner and adhere to all the laws and by-laws set for us to follow and yet they are continuing to break the law and behaving unprofessionally for years. How do you justify that?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.