APC, MMC and indemnity: what you need before your first locum shift

95% of the locum posts we read demanded a valid APC. It's the closest thing the market has to a universal rule, and it's not one clinics are flexible about — practising without one isn't a paperwork slip, it's practising unlicensed.

Here's the stack, from the bottom up. This is an orientation, not legal advice: the Malaysian Medical Council is the authority, and its guidelines are the version that counts.

1. Full registration with the MMC

The base layer. Provisional registration, housemanship, then full registration — an APC sits on top of full registration, so this comes first. Clinics ask for your MMC number because it's the identifier they can look you up by, which is also why it's worth having to hand rather than hunting for it every time.

2. A current Annual Practising Certificate

The APC is annual and it expires — that's the whole point of the word. To practise after 31 December, the MMC requires an application no later than 1 December of that year, with:

• Professional indemnity cover — evidence of it, not just an intention to get some.
• CPD points — a minimum of 20, per the MMC's guidelines.
• The prescribed fee.

One detail catches people: the CPD diary runs 1 July to 30 June, not January to December. So the points you're counting for the coming APC aren't the ones you earned this calendar year. If you've never looked at the cycle before, look at it now rather than in late November.

Don't assume the timeline always holds on the Council's side either. In January 2026, CodeBlue reported that APC 2026 delays had left many doctors unable to practise while they waited. Apply early; the deadline is the last safe day, not the target.

3. Professional indemnity cover

Required for the APC, and worth understanding rather than just buying. The MMC's position is that the level of cover is your responsibility to get right for the work you actually do — it varies by practice, and there's no single correct number. If you do voluntary or outside work on top of your regular job, check whether it's covered; if it isn't, that's your arrangement to make.

What a clinic actually checks

In a group chat, mostly nothing — the clinic takes your word, because the alternative is losing the slot to someone faster. That's the trust gap the whole arrangement runs on, and it cuts both ways: good doctors get no credit for being verifiable, and clinics book people they can't check.

On LocumMY, a doctor verifies once — IC, MMC number, APC number and certificate — and an admin reviews it before they can apply to anything. Clinics see the badge instead of taking your word for it, and you don't re-upload your APC for every new clinic. Get verified once, then apply to anything.

The short version

1. 1Full MMC registration, and know your number.
2. 2APC applied for by 1 December, with indemnity, ≥20 CPD points and the fee.
3. 3Mind the CPD cycle — 1 July to 30 June, not the calendar year.
4. 4Indemnity cover that matches what you actually do.
5. 5Apply early. The Council has its own backlogs.