Blinkymummy replied to my article on My Doctor. This is what she said:
"He can jolly well drive his fucking car. I dun care.BUT HE CANNOT ORDER IT WHEN HE'S ATTENDING TO A PATIENT?!!!IT'S ABOUT BEING PROFESSIONAL.HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF OUR PRIME MINISTER OPENLY ORDERED HIS SLK WHILE HE'S IN PARLIAMENT?Let's face it.There are few people who have work ethics these days.BUT... At least fucking to pretend to have some, can?!!! At least put on the act to justify the fucking obscene amount of money he earns can?!!"
Ok guys, there you have it! We docs are really getting a bad rep ok!!! I'm not gonna risk another scolding from my idol defending you guys!!! SO STOP BUYING AND SELLING CARS DURING CONSULTATIONS!!!!!! You can call your remisers for all they care but strictly no car sales!!!
Doctors earn obscene amount of money??? All the younger doctors that i know who drive SLK/ BMW have rich parents... Doctors' earning power is a sad public misconception. So, listen parents! stop sending your kids to med school thinking its a good investment. It's not!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree. Most of my classmates who drives jags, SLKs, BMWs to school have their parents' financing the payment of the car. I don't think their parents take the cars back once they graduate from medical school. There are definitely doctors who earn BIG money. The rest are basically just professionals who earns enough to lead a comfortable life. For those who do not have rich parents, most of us start our working life with debts of about S$15,000 to S$18,000 because of the school fees, either through bank loans or parents' CPF. Which other professional start out so much in debt?
ReplyDeleteas far as i know, 10 years ago, the annual school fees for overseas medical students in Australia was A$25,000. Typical medical course is 6 years and the contact hours far higher than any other courses... I also sincerely believe medical students have to "consume" the largest volumes of books and lecture notes, endure most scolding from the professors...
ReplyDeleteAfter all that, on top of long working hours + overnight onsite calls, they spend at least another 6 years studying and taking various examinations to qualify as a specialist....
So if the doc earns "obscene" amount of money to buy a SLK, I think its justifiable (sadly, most don't...)
I agreed its unprofessional for the docotr to talk about such personal matters in front of a patient. But would BM be as angry if her doctor was ordering a Vios or Sunny instead?
ReplyDeleteThere are poor doctors and rich doctors. Just like there are poor bankers and rich bankers; accountants, lawyers etc etc ..
ReplyDeletePOint is: It's just not professional to take personal calls while attending to patients!? Just like it's not acceptable for my hairstylist to talk on his mobile while cutting my hair, or my boss attending to personal phone call while in a middle of an important meeting..
Simple as that.
It's not about doctors only. It's about professionalism. It's about justifying the fee you charge for that consultation you provided.
i think the part where she was pissed was this part:"Instead of putting it on silent mode, he picked it up like three times and spoke in a low whisper... Everytime he's done with his call, he would turn around, apologise and switch back to his "I'm so damn concerned about you as a sick person" voice."
ReplyDeletei guess this is the 'sickening' part. it's not about the phone calls. it's about personal phonecalls while with a patient. granted, "You won't know if its urgent until you pick up." however, if he picked it up 3 times... he could at least let the car salesman know he's busy and to call back later right?
and i'm sure the phone in question is a handphone, since BM said something about it being on silent mode... so don't the caller id come out and let the doctor know it isn't impt?
Forget about doctors being rich or poor. All these exchanges made doctors sound like car mechanics who are out to make money when your cars are "sick" or "injured." I think most doctors are not like that. Perhaps besides medical knowledge, the medical school should also emphasize on communication skills and professional conducts. But seriously, don't forget the good work of many doctors, just because of the behaviour of a few black sheeps.
ReplyDeletejust 2cents worth...
ReplyDeletegosh, the current medical sch is already emphasising so much on communication skills etc to the extent that it is squeezing out curriculum time to study about what's actually going wrong in the body.
Plus, the modules on communication, professionalism etc are mostly theory based and they give an essay exam at the end of it! Irelevant to the needs of medical students. What's more pertinent is to have good role models to learn from, like an appreticeship.
This is what you get when you have an over-worked, over-exhausted but normal human being on an over-stretched work schedule trying to preserve his last bits of sanity
-____-
when you are shagged out, the last thing you will be thinking about is the pay you get or the car you can buy.
People just see the money/car/house that doctors earn. But do you see them when disaster strikes? Like during the SARs period? Those working in the hospitals carry on working despite the fear that they will be next to die from SARs.
ReplyDeletehmmm, i'm not too sure what has been done about the medical curriculum but we had no idea what was coming at us during the HO year. med school DID NOT prepare us for working life. oh how i wished consultants would ask, "so tell me about the sympathetic ganglion," instead of "when i ask for something i want it 10 minutes ago!"
ReplyDeleteanyway, to those who can afford it, go overseas for a real med education while those who're here should just throw away what they've learnt in school the day they put on that HO badge...