Tekan lif.
Damn tired.
I REFER to “Overworked housemen” (Letters, Oct 5) and other grouses that increasingly make their way into our media by Generation Y housemen. As a specialist in a government hospital in Selangor, I feel that instead of silence that may be misconstrued as guilt, there is a need to reply. We are now at a crossroads in our health system. The high standards that were maintained through the years have fallen by the wayside. This is especially evident from the constant complaints of the younger generation, although the system and the government are bending over backwards to accommodate them. The reasons: -- An overload of new housemen/doctors – 500 a year in 1998 and 7,500 in 2011, with the number estimated to rise to 10,000 in coming years. -- Too many medical schools in the country – 42 at the last count, with some having very low standards. Indonesia with a population of about 300 million has half the number. How did these colleges come to be recognised? -- Too many medical schools recognised overseas, with the standards, especially of Russian ones, being extremely low. -- So we are now inundated with housemen to train, wherein 60% are of very low standard – meaning not even fit to pass the finals in a medical school exam, let alone to treat patients. -- We, the specialists, are forced to retrain and even reteach these incompetents. -- There are only so many times you can give advice to a person who doesn’t listen – sometimes when a patient’s life is at stake, voices have to be raised! Don’t you agree? -- Increasingly, our politicians get involved when some VIP’s son or daughter who can’t cope, just wants to float through. Many specialists have been given letters of warning, when all they were doing was enforcing appropriate disciplinary action in respect of housemen who had gone AWOL. -- The number of litigation cases against the Health Ministry due to housemen is at an all-time high. -- The shift system was opposed by all senior faculty in the ministry, vis a vis all senior specialists, but it was forced on us. Who is going to monitor all these housemen under the shift system – the specialists? -- When these housemen become medical officers and specialists, are they also going to go on shift? -- We have better things to do than mollycoddle a tsunami of sub-standard doctors. If we are not careful, there will be a great exodus of specialists from the public health system in the next few years. All you see in government hospital nowadays are the poor and the illegals – everyone else has an insurance card! So to the powers that be, wake up and smell the coffee. S.A. ______________________________________________________ He is right. I have never moan about being scolded by my boss, with justifiable reason. But I am very disappointed with the way things are going. Is it our fault that we ended up with 50 HOs in one department? Is it our fault that we ended up doing shift work? Is it our fault that we have house officer graduated from Russia? then why are we getting all the moaning? --- I find it increasing irritating, (probably too strong a word to use), increasing uneasiness when specialists complained regarding the low standard of my fellow equals of house officers Fact: House officer does not need to know much, if the current job description is all we do. Mental strength is all that you need. It doesnt matter where you graduate from, as long as you have the correct attitude to study whenever, you have the time, and shift system, my respectable Dr S.A, is the window of opportunity for that free time. I graduated from one of the finest Medical School in the world, but I do not see myself better than my Russian colleagues who put effort in what he/she does. But when all of us keep pressing on the fact that they are RUSSIANs, UKRAINIANs, I think we are not, anywhere near to solve the issue. The fact is, like you said, at a very important juncture of which what we do now, or rather, what we dont do now, will shape the future of health care in our country. Our health care. not just "them", coz eventually all of us, our family members, will have medical problems, using the healthcare systems, be it public or private. We need to change the leadership and management style in our training hospital. We need to change the attitude of all the specialists, and those who are bestowed with the noble duty to train the younger doctors. Rather than embarked on the similar issue each and everytime, blaming it to the policy makers only, Why not we have a pow-wow to sit down and work out, what we can do to make this work? Changing the training structure? Changing the attitudes of house-officers? Pumping in confidence? Getting them more involved in everyday decision makings? Put in more effort to get them into formalised trainings? My respectable readers; There is no such thing as poor medical graduate, in my opinion, Young doctors mollycoddled
Coz either you are a high flying gold medalist medical graduate who knows the whole of davidsons, or you are just another medical graduate who knows nothing.Posted on 12 October 2011 - 08:53pm
Last updated on 12 October 2011 - 10:00pm
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No such thing as poor houseman!
Only poorly taught trained, poorly motivated house officers.
At least that is I would like to think of my fellow colleagues and myself.
That we all are doctors, and we all sacrificed our valuable youths, to be a someone that can help someone else, in times of need.
That we are not just trying to get past each year only to look for the newest car, buying another house, feeding another family.
While others are sacrificing their youth to gather more money, to live better, to spend more time with family,
we are still studying, for exams, exams and more exams, to be a better positioned, better know-how, better equipped doctor. and that, is independent, of
where you graduate from.
When I opened The Star Online to read news, the box of the most viewed news by Malaysians would never fail to amaze / amuse me.
I tried to figure out what I want to do in the future.
The truth is, funnily enough, we live in today's world, thinking of tomorrow.
We sacrifice health, for work, for money.
We then sacrifice money, for health, for continuation of ability to work, to get more money, to be sacrificed for recuperating health we lost in search of money.
We live in today's world, keep thinking of the past, and worrying of the future.
Perhaps the best thing to, is to keep going, keep going, keep going.
I dont believe in the : when the going gets tough, the tougher gets going.
The toughest makes tougher calls, and toughest call, is to change, not doing the normal way.
PETALING JAYA: The creation of shift duties to ease the long working hours of housemen in public hospitals may affect their training.
Physicians for Social Responsibility vice-president Datuk Dr Abdul Hamid Abdul Kadir voiced concern that training and supervision would be affected for those on the night shift because senior doctors only come when on call.
“New graduates require special attention and the shift system will not help train new house officers (HOs),” he said in an interview.
In his Budget 2012 speech on Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that the Government had introduced a flexible schedule with an average of 60 working hours per week for housemen to ease the workload of doctors who had to work for up to 120 hours per week.
He said that they would be paid a Special Flexible Working Allowance of RM600 a month effective Sept 1 this year, replacing the on-call allowance.
Dr Abdul Hamid said the over-crowding of housemen in most government hospitals had led to a lack of supervision and the night shift would only make the situation worse.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said they would still be taught during overlapping shifts when housemen from both shifts would be present.
“We will make sure they get the exposure they need,” he said.
Liow said shifts and reduced hours were needed to prevent on-calls that were extended for long without rest.
