Recently, another story of a HO meeting with an accident went viral on Malaysian social media. Reportedly, the unfortunate lady was returning from a 30-hour shift at a tertiary hospital in Klang Valley when- presumably out of lack of sleep- she rammed into the back of a large container truck.
Her car was totaled, but she emerged from it virtually unscathed.
Thank God and the good build of the locally produced car, she's safe.
But that is only the introduction of what I'm going to write about today.
Following the shard article on a facebook page I was following, surprisingly, was a barrage of comments from naysayers-
...
I am a current HO and I can say with confidence that quite a lot of us work over 30 hours a day.
And I am one of those people, in this current posting.
It's not because we are so generous and hardworking (though some of us undoubtedly are). By and large, the inhumane hours were imposed upon us.
Guess what, we still function- though barely. And you do not even want to imagine the mistakes that could cost our patients when a person has been awake for over 20 hours and working with almost no rest at all, then STILL expected to work further, until well over 30 hours have passed.
One of my MOs recently was taking a gander at our salary.
She thought we were getting at least 1k more than what we are actually getting.
I had a good laugh at that. Apparently, she got around that figure a few years ago as a HO- due to on-call allowances, and judging by our working hours she thought we were being compensated more fairly.
With the Flexi Shift system, we get a set amount of money per month no matter how many hours we put into our work- called the Flexi Allowance or so. Usually, this doesn't concern me in the least- I expected to work my arse off and get minimum wage (lol) even before I started working, because it's always what we were taught to expect right when we started medical school. But what truly irks me is the amount of people who do not know what is going on, and yet are so sure of what they are saying based on some statements by the authorities and higher-ups who obviously only know to make policies and not really enforce them.
And as a result, they think we are being pampered and mollycoddled, and that our voices of dissent over the injustice of it all are just a result of our lazy, self-entitled upbringing and environment.
Yes, the Flexi System was SUPPOSED to be implemented for the following factors- more manpower equals less working hours per individual equals less compensation equals more economical and effective outcome. Win-win all around.
But do we really have enough manpower?
Are the hospitals simply overflowing with doctors, and in particular, HOs?
Is there any rule out there that would strictly enforce this 'Shift System' policy with penalties for failure to comply?
Uh, no.
As a result:
If a lone HO dares to voice out his or her dissent, he or she is quickly met with antagonizing stares and fast-tracked on the road of extension and eventually displacement to another hospital. If that weren't enough, he or she is also threatened with a delayed promotion to MO-ship for being arrogant and not sticking to the status quo. Such is the way of the medical fraternity, I have learned- many are quick to anger and say they suffered the worst, and generational gaps remain massive and for the most part, insurmountable.
Words like 'during my time' are thrown around a lot, often out of context.
Le sigh.
It wouldn't have bothered me that much if some non-medical people had the misconception about our working hours. But hearing it from our own seniors really breaks my heart. What kind of attention would we be trying to garner by faking our own working hours?
Wake up.
30 hour shifts (and more) STILL exist for HOs.
We do NOT work less than 8 hours per shift most of the time.
And most HOs do not have a place to retire to by the end of their shift. In many departments in my hospital, there are no specific rooms for HOs on-call to rest- in fact, we are not expected to rest, thanks to our 'shift' hours that are supposedly blissfully short.
It is truly disheartening at times...
But life goes on.
And the job remains rewarding if you focus on the more rewarding aspects- i.e. the care of your patients.
Her car was totaled, but she emerged from it virtually unscathed.
Thank God and the good build of the locally produced car, she's safe.
But that is only the introduction of what I'm going to write about today.
Following the shard article on a facebook page I was following, surprisingly, was a barrage of comments from naysayers-
"There is NO WAY HOs nowadays can work that many hours per shift!"
"With the implementation of the Flexi System, HOs do not work exceeding 8 hours a day. That is a fact."
"Even I did not work that many hours per shift 30 years ago..."
"Is the relative SURE the HO worked for so long? As far as I know HOs do not do oncalls now."
...
I am a current HO and I can say with confidence that quite a lot of us work over 30 hours a day.
And I am one of those people, in this current posting.
It's not because we are so generous and hardworking (though some of us undoubtedly are). By and large, the inhumane hours were imposed upon us.
Guess what, we still function- though barely. And you do not even want to imagine the mistakes that could cost our patients when a person has been awake for over 20 hours and working with almost no rest at all, then STILL expected to work further, until well over 30 hours have passed.
One of my MOs recently was taking a gander at our salary.
She thought we were getting at least 1k more than what we are actually getting.
I had a good laugh at that. Apparently, she got around that figure a few years ago as a HO- due to on-call allowances, and judging by our working hours she thought we were being compensated more fairly.
With the Flexi Shift system, we get a set amount of money per month no matter how many hours we put into our work- called the Flexi Allowance or so. Usually, this doesn't concern me in the least- I expected to work my arse off and get minimum wage (lol) even before I started working, because it's always what we were taught to expect right when we started medical school. But what truly irks me is the amount of people who do not know what is going on, and yet are so sure of what they are saying based on some statements by the authorities and higher-ups who obviously only know to make policies and not really enforce them.
And as a result, they think we are being pampered and mollycoddled, and that our voices of dissent over the injustice of it all are just a result of our lazy, self-entitled upbringing and environment.
Yes, the Flexi System was SUPPOSED to be implemented for the following factors- more manpower equals less working hours per individual equals less compensation equals more economical and effective outcome. Win-win all around.
But do we really have enough manpower?
Are the hospitals simply overflowing with doctors, and in particular, HOs?
Is there any rule out there that would strictly enforce this 'Shift System' policy with penalties for failure to comply?
Uh, no.
As a result:
- Many hospital departments still use the on-call system, or very long shift systems
- We work way more than the 'cut-off' maximum hours per week
- We still do on-call systems like our MOs, but twice a week, without weekends off, and without the 'lucrative' on-call allowance nor ability to claim our weekends/public holidays to the maximum.
- And worst of all, nobody is brave enough to change the system.
If a lone HO dares to voice out his or her dissent, he or she is quickly met with antagonizing stares and fast-tracked on the road of extension and eventually displacement to another hospital. If that weren't enough, he or she is also threatened with a delayed promotion to MO-ship for being arrogant and not sticking to the status quo. Such is the way of the medical fraternity, I have learned- many are quick to anger and say they suffered the worst, and generational gaps remain massive and for the most part, insurmountable.
Words like 'during my time' are thrown around a lot, often out of context.
Le sigh.
It wouldn't have bothered me that much if some non-medical people had the misconception about our working hours. But hearing it from our own seniors really breaks my heart. What kind of attention would we be trying to garner by faking our own working hours?
Wake up.
30 hour shifts (and more) STILL exist for HOs.
We do NOT work less than 8 hours per shift most of the time.
And most HOs do not have a place to retire to by the end of their shift. In many departments in my hospital, there are no specific rooms for HOs on-call to rest- in fact, we are not expected to rest, thanks to our 'shift' hours that are supposedly blissfully short.
It is truly disheartening at times...
But life goes on.
And the job remains rewarding if you focus on the more rewarding aspects- i.e. the care of your patients.
