THE QUESTIONING OF A DOCTOR'S INTEGRITY

PLEASE DON'T CALL US QUACKS!

I know that I am supposed to be away from active blogging. But after having read a thought provoking (feeling provoking was more like it!) by someone, I felt strongly complled to pen down my thoughts; my sincere, humble and sad thoughts.

This person's brother was hospitalized for injuries incurred in an unfortunate motor-vehicle accident. Sadly, many incidents and predicaments that ensued after his hospital admission were uncalled for; treatments deemed unfit for the standards of our country's health service. The main culprit in this series of unfortunate events was the doctor. To be specific, he was the orthopedic specialist looking after the 'broken' guy.

I know he was just venting out his anger. Him being away overseas and unable to lambast at the rude, heartless doctor; all these proved to be too much for him. Thus he needed a venue to let off steam. That I truly understand.

BUT to equate we Malaysian doctors as quacks?? Isn't that overdoing it?? Calling us doctors quacks, bomohs or witchdoctors is just like telling us that our six years of slogging in medical school and years of practice are worthless effort; that we are actually a bunch of idiots given the license to prescribe our 'potions' to our so-called patients.

I am sorry that there are some 'black-sheep' amongst us. Doctors whom perhaps due to many reasons are not practising medicine wholeheartedly. These could be doctors who took up medicine for the wrong reasons like fulfilling their parents' desire etc.

But making a blatant generalisation and calling us quacks?? is it fair for us who work day in and out, tight down with a ridiculous schedule and a meager salary to match?

Do you know how I plowed through my one year of housemanship? As we were short of housemen that year, i had to endure a full year of doing alternate day calls. This literally means that I had to work continuously for a full 34 hours in a stretch!! Imagine!! And this means that I was virtually away from home and my kids, most of the time.

Let me tell you how a houseman's calls are like. We have to make rounds before anyone else does. We have to memorise each case, bed by bed. Their blood results, their values. The patients' latest findings, complaints and wellbeing. These should be at our finger tips. Or we'll be at the specialist's whippings (and you wouldn't want to be in those shoes, I tell you!). Then we have to draw bottles and bottles of blood and perform all the procedures ordered prior. When the MO comes, we accompany him/her for another round. The specialist comes, another round. And that's only for the morning!! And we have afternoon and night rounds too! Not mentioning, some specialists love ad hoc rounds whenever they fancy.

After office hours, HOs are the only active beings around. You are accountable for everything! The patients complaint of headache, call the HO. The patients can't urinate, call the HO. Even when the patients can't sleep, the HOs are being sought after! Never mind that the HO him/herself is not getting a single wink!

And this trend doesnt stop there. It continues even after an HO becomes an MO. The cycle repeats itself. Only that an MO gets to ask the HO to do it first!!

The point that I'm driving at is that Malaysian doctors are overworked and underpaid!! So what happens when a doctor is overworked?

1) He/she can't concentrate and mistakes can happen
2) They become grumpy and insensitive
3) They opt out for private practice, the first chance they get


Most importantly, the main message that I want to get across is that
despite everything, we doctors try our best to embrace compassion as
an embodiment of our work ethic. It is the spirit of healing. Monetary returns shouldn't be our goal. To our budding doctors, please know that being a doctor is never about glamour nor high-status. It is all about sacrifice and hard-work in the line of preserving good health for the public.

To all our budding doctors out there, Hiyoshi, Ayumi, iFos, Sarah, Muhammad, Hannah, Haneem and the rest, please take heed. Rise up to this call. Prove to them we are not quacks!

Wallahu'alam!

This is what Crimsonskye has to say:

Sometimes I don't get what's with all the high-profile-status-high-salary' hype related with the medical field. Don't get me wrong, because here is where I can see clearly that to become a doctor is to have something even more than just good results, a special kind of passion and focus- and I freely admit I don't have that.

Like I've mentioned in the entry, this is one profession that I respect and look up to not because of its status or the like, but because doctors deals so much with the human lives while making a lot of sacrifices on their own part. And that's truly something to be admired.



This is what iKelah has to say:


Adakah doktor di malaysia tiadak beretika?
Mengapa?


Biar saya mulakan dengan seminggu kerjaya seorang doktor.
Saya masih ingat setelah belajar 6 tahun gaji permulaan bulanan adalah RM1360 denga kenaikan RM60 setiap tahun. Seorang jurutera selah tamat belajar 4 tahun akan memperolehi gaji yang sama tetapi dengan 2 tahun senioriti.

Pada waktu itu saya ditugaskan
di Hospital Kuantan sebagai Pegawai Perubatan Sementara(houseman). Kami berlima mendaftarkan diri dalam keadaan tergamam. 5 houseman untuk 6 department!!! Penempatan pertama saya adalah di unit perbidanan dan sakit puan. Terdapat 1 doktor pakar, seorang registrar, 4 Pegawai Perubatan dan 2 houseman termasuk saya. Seorang pegawaiPerubatan junior terpaksa membuat call houseman.

Dalam seminggu ada 168 jam dan saya bekerja sebanyak 136 jam seminggu(2 consecutive days on call, next day normal hours, no off day)

. Houseman tidak layak MC, cuti tahunan 28 hari biasanya tidak akan dilayan, cuti umu tidak dilayan, weekends/ahad sama seperti hari bekerja. Untuk semua ini dibayar RM1360 sebulan atau RM340 seminggu.

Masa bekerja adalah 136 jam seminggu dengan bayaran RM340 bersamaan RM2.50 sejam.
Kerani rendah dengan gaji RM500 sebulan= RM125 seminggu bekerja selama 44 jam seminggu bersamaan dengan RM2.84 sen sejam. Beliau boleh menerima cuti sakit, bercuti pada cuti umum dan berhak menuntut 14 atau 20 hari cuti tahunan.

Gaji siapa yang lebih besar dan siapa yang diainaya! Belum dibandingkan dengan gaji jurutera atau pegawai tadbir.Walaupun demikian kebanyakan doktor menganggap tangungjawab dan kewajipan adalah lebih diutamakan. Tidak dinafikan terdapat segelintir doktor yang mementingkan diri dan kemewahan seperti didalam profession lain juga. Justeru itu tidaklah adil untuk menghukum secara menyuluruh.