Caring doctors

There are lots of complaint that doctors are not being caring enough.

I remember starting my internship - we started work at 7 am and did not go back till 9 pm on a good day (or night?). When we went on call, we would work till 10 or 11 pm. The next day started at 7 am again. I used to fall asleep listening to the patient's story.

I look at some of the housemen/interns here; they start work at 7 am, and work straight till the next day 5 pm. That's 31 hours straight, often without lunch or breakfast in between. They could hardly keep themselves on their feet or their eyes open. It was good enough that they remain sane after their houseman years; to ask that they be sympathetic when they are hardly awake most of the time is asking too much. And they are often blamed for not knowing when no one has ever taught them before. (pity them =D)

One of my greatest story is this patient from Mentakab, who went to the Accident and Emergency Department and seek emergency help at 2 am because he had a ... guess what? A blocked nose!!

Then my resident (MO, or medical officer) years. That was a blur; the only thing I remember is trying hard to study for my specialist exam, working, and waking up in the middle of the night trying to feed either Nicole or Timothy. Oh and one more thing I remember. When she was barely 2, Nicole had this tendency to wake up at 2 or 3 am and wanted to go outside to play.

I remember, too, there was a lot of fight with my wife Belinda. It was a miracle that our marriage hit the rock so many times and yet it did not break up. The Titanic would have sunk many a-times ago. When you were barely awake most of the time, and your wife threw so many plates at you (figuratively speaking, of course) that you ducked instinctively every time you saw her, and you were asked to be sympathetic to the patients; now that, too, is asking a bit too much.

Until and unless we treat our junior doctors better - and they are on the frontline, seeing the patients first and the most number of times - it is not possible to have them care more for the patients.

Even Superman would have lost his temper.

All these talks about choosing the right personality, right character, right motivation, right psychology, etc etc etc before being admitted into medical school is just plain smoke-screen.

Well the hard fact is, we are not willing to pay our doctors more or to treat them better, full-stop.

And some people wonder why I don't encourage my kids to do medicine.