Three years ago, I wrote an article with the above title. I thought of revisiting the title again, as there are a lot of negative publicity with the medical profession over the last few weeks. It all started on 29/07/2018 when a front page article was published by the Star.
The front page title was followed by an article which supposedly exposed an HOD who has been sexually harassing junior doctors. Currently KKM is conducting an enquiry into this matter and the said HOD has been asked to go on leave. While I do not want to speculate on the truth of the matters raised, I am not totally surprised either. “With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility” but unfortunately, Great Power also comes with great corruption! It is not unusual for someone in great power to abuse their position. It happens in almost every field. Even in Hollywood and Bollywood, actresses have been sexually harassed. The recent expose of Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandals rocked Hollywood and subsequently many more exposures came to light. Whenever someone is in a vulnerable position, the superiors with ultimate power tend to take advantage. Have I seen it happening in medical field? If I say NO, I will be a liar. However, most of what I have heard are verbal in nature. Please be also informed that there is a difference between sexual harassment, sexual abuse and assault.
On 9th May 2018, for the first time since independence we saw a change of government. What happened after that? Expose after expose showing how the country’s and the people’s money were misused and abused. I have lost track of all the exposes since 9/05/2018. Why did it happen in the first place? The answer is the same: with great power comes great corruption! Anyone who stays in power for too long will bound to misuse their position. It is human nature. That’s why politicians will never try to give up their seat. The same thing happens in any organisation. When someone becomes the HOD and remains so till retirement, he becomes untouchable. He becomes so powerful that every single thing needs his approval. From approving leaves, giving SKT marks, approval to attend courses, signing for exams, approving claims, signing off housemen etc etc, almost everything needs his/her signature! What a powerful position! On the other hand, the HOD can go missing anytime, hardly does any clinical work, goes overseas conferences under pharma sponsorship etc etc and NO ONE will ever complain or take action against him/her! I have seen HOD’s who only came to work twice a month and was sitting on a JUSA C level! The rest of the days, he/she is contactable at home! I have seen HODs who hardly does any clinical rounds but will appear in the ward everyday when a VIP gets admitted. It really fits into the term ” Makan Gaji BUTA”. How many HODs even put in their leave application forms but yet they are on-leave?
When someone is that powerful, things like sexual harassment etc bound to happen. Many years ago, I wrote in the MMA magazine that HOD’s post should be rotated! When I was doing my attachment in Singapore in 2007, it is the policy of the hospital that HODs can only hold the post for a maximum of 2 terms. One term is 3 years. So, after 6 years, the baton must be passed to the next person. This next person may be a junior to the current HOD by years BUT the rotation will still need to be done. The whole purpose of this policy is to prevent abuse and at the same time, give the junior doctors an exposure to administrative work. Somewhere in the late 2000s, there was a circular from the then DG, Tan Sri Ismail Merican suggesting that the HODs to be rotated every 5 years among the JUSA salary scale. Unfortunately, there were huge objections from the HODs themselves and the suggested plan never materialised. Human nature: power! And absolute power corrupts absolutely!
IN 2014, I wrote an article about bullying. In fact, i had written several times on the issue of bullying and thus, I would not elaborate on that matter in detail again. There is a thin line which differentiates bullying from scolding. We cannot assume that every scolding is a form of bullying. Medicine is about life and death matter. A simple twist of the pen can cause death. Thus, seniors scolding juniors will happen no matter how hard you try to prevent it. However, it should not be done in front of the patients/relatives.Bullying on the other hand has nothing to do with scolding for making mistakes.Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumours, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. Unfortunately, it looks like now, every scolding is being considered bullying. Medical life is a stressful life, both physically and mentally. When you work in such a stressful situation, scolding bound to happen. However, with increasing number of doctors, shouldn’t it get better? Where did we go wrong? Why despite having increasing number of doctors ( I heard some hospitals have close to 4 MOs in a ward!!), there seem to be worsening situation of “bullying”? BTW, real bullying do occur and it occurs in every profession and in every country. This article talks about bullying in Australia and this in NZ. Nothing unusual but the type of bullying varies from one centre to another. We can never prevent it completely as we are working in a stressful job.
My answer is simple, which I had written since 2004! The quality of graduates had deteriorated! When quality deteriorates and graduates do not even know basic medicine, scolding aka “bullying” will become more rampant. From what I gather, the quality has deteriorated to the extend that sometimes, the consultants do not even bother to ask the HOs anything, as it is pointless! How did someone graduate when they do not even know how to take a history, examine and come to a diagnosis? It is the very basic of medicine that you go to a medical school for. How did someone even passed the final exam? Again, this is what you get when you commercialised medical education. Do you really think that the medical schools are interested in producing the best quality of graduates? All private universities are profit driven. Only profit matters. With such a low entry requirement to enrol into a medical school, we still have almost 100% passing rate! Can anyone beat that? Australia with such a stringent entry criteria, still have about 5-10% drop out rate! UK has almost similar figures. India went through the same phenomenon when they commercialised their medical education in late 1970s. Corruption, lowering entry requirement and high pass rate with dropping standards forced Medical Council of India to introduce a common entry exam! Now, every student who intend to do medicine must sit and achieve certain level of pass marks to be eligible for medical course. Only after that, you can apply to the universities: public and private.
I just hope MMC will seriously look into this matter and introduce some form of either a common entry or exit exam to maintain the standards of medical graduates. If not, we are be going backwards! Many still do not know how medicine has changed and still changing. I will continue these series of articles over the next few months. My next issue under this heading will be “doctor-patient relationship” and professional boundaries. With social media everywhere, do medical students or junior doctors know where their boundaries are?
Happy 61st Merdeka ……………
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Tq
Well said Dr Paga. Bullying is present in every work field and can be never be eliminated but there is a grey area between scolding and bullying, especially under stressful circumstances. I’ve seen some HOD went missing in hospital and spotted wandering around at shopping complex at 3pm (working day , working hours) and not seen most of the time in the department . I’ve seen HOD holding JUSA A post and approaching retirement age only visible upon VIP guest admitted to ward and at the same time being oblivious on what is happening in the department. I’ve seen some HOD assuming HO in his department working 8 hrs per day and telling rest of the world about his assumption while there is MOH circular for minimum working hours for house officers. I’ve seen some HOD “persuade” their patient so that the patient get admitted in private hospital and receive treatment by the same person.
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Yup, exactly!
I was in hospital recently. I saw a lot of junior medical officers or housemen around. The most senior doctor has only been medical officer for 2 years and others seem to follow his instructions. It makes me wonder where are the doctors who are say 5, 6, 7 years or 10 years in medical practice let alone the HOD. Have many of them left service or they are working elsewhere unseen.
It is slightly worrying as I know of a case where a MO of at most 3 years experience was sued together with an MO of about 1 year experience for negligence. Are junior doctors properly supervised that is my question
you are absolutely correct! This is something I had written before. The issue started the last 10-15 years when many senior doctors either retired or left civil service. This left behind junior doctors who got no proper guidance/supervision. And these junior doctors are also becoming specialist without proper guidance. It is a vicious cycle which I predicted almost 10 years to bring down the quality of our healthcare system.
Dear doctor,
I am currently a JPA scholar studying A Levels. I’m planning to take up medicine and theres a few medical schools that i am planning to apply to( UM, Monash, NUMed). In your opinion, is UM still the best choice locally? Between Monash and NUMed, which is better?
Public university still has the best facilities. Furthermore, UM has it’s own teaching hospital.
Howabout the private universities in Malaysia? Is NUMed or Monash good?
Both are OK
The thing I really want to ask you is, are you choosing medicine just because you’re under JPA or is it because you really want to do it?
I’ve seen so many first hand accounts of JPA scholars choosing medicine just because of you don’t have to invest a single cent in the degree. Have you considered about the current housemanship glut we’re in? Have you considered the consequences of taking up medicine, a hard and trying degree that would cost you physically and mentally not just for the five years you’re taking the degree but beyond that? Have you thought long and hard about your prospects after graduating? A lot of students always say oh I can take up USLME or PLAB and work overseas but the reality is the chance for you to work overseas is very slim. Even Monash and NUMed graduates whose degrees are recognised by their parent countries can’t qualify for the internship/foundation year there.
Please think long and hard about your decision. Just because you’re being sponsored doesn’t mean you should carelessly choose the degree that would shape your life.
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Thank you for your kind concern about this, however i hope that people will stop stereotyping JPA scholars as people who are only interested in studying medicine because we are being sponsored. I dare not say for the majority, but in my case i did not plan to take up medicine just because I’m a JPA scholar. In fact, i have been interested in studying medicine since young, and i was not influenced by any of the family members or friends if you’re wondering. I worked hard to gain the JPA sponsorship because i want to study medicine. Had i not did well in spm and fail to secure the sponsorship, i would have gave up studying medicine due to the hefty tuition fee. Yes i agree that many of the students nowadays step into medical school without having any knowledge or idea about what it’s like. I have some friends who wants to study medicine just because of pressure from parents or just for the sake of money, which I’m glad and confident that it did not happen to me. I am aware that as a JPA scholar i am studying using the taxpayer’s money, thus i am indeed concern about whether my choice would be a right one and not a careless one. I had attended medical workshops held by medical associations and have been keeping myself up to date with all the problems happening in the local medical field, just so that i can have a clear understanding of what will i be facing in the future, should i step into the medical field. And despite the housemanship glut happening in Malaysia, i would still choose to serve in the country. I am hopeful of the current Health Minister Dr Dzulkifly that measures would be taken by the ministry to solve this problem. Nevertheless, thanks for your concern and let us all hope for a brighter future for the Malaysian healthcare industry.
What about Taylor’s? A lot of JPA scholars go there
They just started producing graduates last 2-3 years, difficult to comment.
I totally agree Dr Pagalavan, absolute power corrupts. There was a case in my hospital, the HOD of the Emergency Department was involved.
A patient who happened to be a parent of one of my colleague from a different department who was on call with me that night.
The patient was mismanaged so badly that a lower respiratory tract infection with a possible fluid overload in a background of end stage renal failure ended up being intubated after being breathless in ED for almost 2 hours that the medical officers missed or did not have any sense of urgency to at least consider non-invasive ventilation.
My colleague managed to come down to the ED after settling an unstable patient to see the parent. She was shocked to see the mother’s condition. Unfortunately the patient developed hypoxic encephalopathy and end of life measures were put in place.
An internal, followed by external enquiry was made and a report was filed. The HOD of ED remarked when asked about the complaint being lodged. His smug comment was “Its just another complaint, my file is this thick, I will slot it into my huge pile of complaints”.
If they can treat relatives of colleagues like that, I shudder to think how they will treat the public.
I am not a doctor..but I know a lot relatives, friends who want their children to be doctor, even their children have mediocre SPM or A level results..this is because private medical schools provide”back door” for these children to got into medical schools where as the top 4As STPM scholar was rejected by public medical school recently….which once against proven MONEY is king! very sad for Malaysia medical industry…those with fair results but less fortunate families cannot fullfill their dreams but those average Joes/Janes can…
Welcome to the real world. medicine is a business!
But it’s a ridiculous notion also because almost all the 4.0 students want to take up medicine! My own daughter who was a 4.0 student said a lot of her classmates who were 4.0 as well applied for medicine despite not even being interested in doing medicine. When she asked them why, most of the answers were similar. They had a 4.0, why shouldn’t they apply medicine? I don’t understand their mindset that 4.0 = applying for medicine?
And I also find the notion that private universities offering a “backdoor” to less qualified students very true. One university I know of took up 160 students, with over 50 foreign students. Medicine has definitely become a big business in Malaysia with little to no control and regulations.
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You will be surprised how these medical schools are advertising in Facebook recently. Some have gone to the extent of saying it is free! PTPTN loan + Bursary = FREE!!
Thank you Dr. for keeping us updated and provoking thoughts for reflection.
There’s just so many things in the system that need to be change for better medical practice in Malaysia. Easier said than done because the people who has power are often the ones benefited from the current system and I can imagine they’ll do anything in their power to prevent changes.
Going off into a tangent, with regards to recent issues of straight A’s students not getting into the medical course they desire and ending up on front pages of national newspapers, along with the medical graduate tsunami, I thought we needed a stricter entry benchmark, determined by real clinicians who are still working in wards or clinics.
I feel that the senior-junior connection across various stages in the medical training pathway is poorly managed in our country. Medical students don’t have a platform to interact/work along with consultants while consultants, who actually work in the wards, don’t have the time for medical students and normally leave all their clinical teachings to housemen or MO’s.
I know this is a lot to ask for but when the people who actually has the power to change the fate of the younger generation/future of medicine aren’t interested/don’t know/aren’t keeping an open mind to what issues the younger budding medics are facing, brushing things off with the problem lies in the medical graduates and housemen nowadays instead, there is a problem there.
First off, why not have real clinicians selecting the kind of SPM/STPM/A-levels/Matriks… students who passed the entry criteria to select the kind of students who are fit for practising medicine next time? They’ll know the best! We need more clinicians who are interested in training the future of medicine and the only way we can get around that is a better system inplemented to bridge and foster good relationships between medical colleagues across various stages and reasonable incentives (CV boost or cpd points) + time allocation for teaching/education (currently still underappreciated in Malaysia).
Sadly, the cruel cruel reality makes all these sound overly idealistic.
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There is a lot of bureaucracy when it comes to medical students and hospital they are attached to. The consultants are government servants and most students are private college students. They are not interested to teach them.You will only realise these kind of politics once you start working.
And you are right: in the real world , only 1 thing matters: money! It is money everywhere. Private colleges are profit driven. If you pay the consultant huge money, than they will teach! Pay them peanuts and they will not bother. That’s the reality in this world. Once you start working, you will realise that your passion will be out of the window. Trust me, it is all profit driven nowadays. Medicine is a business, no more humanitarian service.
Hello Sir,
I’m really sorry to bother you but I just wanted to inquire about the possible credit transfer availble fro medicine in Malaysia. I was kicked out of a medical university in Johor just because I failed one part of the assessment during my Year 2 and although I appealed since the mark I attained was very close and to the pass mark and I had health complications , my appeal was rejected. I wish to continue with my education but I am at my wits end of where to continue in Malaysia. My family is not well off and even now they’ve invested so much only for me to fail. Please do provide some input on what I should do next. I really do want to do a credit transfer just so I don’t have to start from the bottom again as I did really well for my first year. Please help, Sir.
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Unfortunately it is going to be difficult. All credit transfers need to be approved by MMC. As far as I know, credit transfers, if at all, starts either as Year 1 or Year 3. So you have to start from Year 1 again. Furthermore, the last I heard, if you are kicked out from one university, you are not allowed to enroll into another university. It will be more advisable if you ask your current uni whether you can redo the entire 2nd year again.
Sir, this uni I’m talking about doesn’t allow students to repeat the year. Once you’ve failed, they immediately terminate your studies. It’s such a harsh and unfair system, especially considering the fact that I’ve been a good student for the past two years and I only failed one aspect of the assessment. I outperformed others for my clinical skills assessments and assignments but because I failed the written paper, it was deemed that I had failed the year and my studies were terminated. I’m really very stressed at the moment as I do not have the capability to start over again financially and I really have no interest in trying for other degrees. I’m really at my wits end.
I presume it is one of the branch campus in Johor? Unfortunately, that is how it is unless you go to another country to do it.
Why aren’t you allowed to repeat the year? Is that the policy adopted by most medical universities, not just in Malaysia but overseas as well? I know some top universities that allow student to repeat the years they failed in as long as they complete the degree in seven years. What kind of policy is your university adopting?
I know Dr. paga is gonna comment about the universities need to follow the rules and regulation set up by their medical council but this is just ridiculous to me. Even NUS/NTU doesn’t do that.
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Most universities allow repeat of the year but I am not sure why this university don’t.
I always tell everyone I know not to go to that specific uni if they want to take their undergrad. Mediocre teaching by foreign lecturers with thick accents combined with a severe lack of proper facilities plus their ridiculous policies that kick students out regardless of what year they’re in!
This wasn’t my first time ever where I’ve heard first hand accounts of students being kicked out for failing a part of the assessment. And for those who had to resit, there was no remedial teaching or prep given. All they expect you is to come back in one and half months and sit for the exam and hopefully pass.
So what about those who can’t? They have to leave! The appeal doesn’t really work ( my friend’s sister tried to appeal and even while the appeal was still in session, they had already terminated her studies-so unprofessional) and you can’t ask for a chance to repeat the year!
Never heard of any universities doing that, not even good ones like those in the neighbouring country. Universities are supposed to help their students to pass by providing the right amount of support instead of kicking them aside and ruining their dreams.
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My daughter had to leave after failing her first year and boy was it a Blessing in disguise. And she was one of many out of the 160 students in her year! 160 YEAR ONE STUDENTS! Like it doesn’t make sense expecially considering how small the campus is.
So we started looking for other schools for her to start over and another university hat my daughter considered said they accept 260 per year. Like what are they doing?!?! How are they actually teaching the kids?
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Welcome to Bolehland! This is what I have been saying for the last 15 years!
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I think your last statement is not really right. While I agree that they should allow the student to repeat the year, I don’t agree that all students should pass the degree once enrolled. I think you are not familiar with the system overseas in reputable universities. We are so used to see 100% passing rate in Malaysia that we forget that universities have certain standards to maintain especially when it comes to medical education. These foreign universities need to follow the regulations and standards set by their medical council. If they don’t , they will be de-recognised by the medical council.
However, I do agree that the teaching standards will definitely won’t be the same as their mother university.
Hi Dr Pagalavan,
Knowing of all the abuse, harassement, increasing number of medical graduates locally and at the same time psychiatry issues among housemen, I am thinking of doing housemanship overseas as I heard overseas medical system is good. US medical system can train a doctor to be a specialist in 3 years after passing their USMLE. Would you encourage a local medical graduate to persue residency in US rather than doing it locally?
Thank you very much and hope to hear words of wisdom from you soon. Hope you would not mind answering my questions if many people have been asking the same thing.
You must understand that if your degree is not recognised elsewhere, you won’t be able to do housemanship anywhere else unless you sit and pass the entrance exam with no guarantee of a job. You must also understand that you can never become a specialist in 3 years!!. Many people don’t understand the healthcare system in US. It is totally a different system and it is only applicable in the US. 3 years of residency in US actually do not make you a specialist. You are a generalist, similar to what a GP(clinic aka primary care) does over here. Only after you complete your fellowship, you are considered as a specialist on the field that you had completed. Unfortunately, the mistake is, NSR recognises registration with American Board as equivalent to a specialist which is technically wrong. And the medical schools are now actively promoting USMLE as a shorter route to specialisation which is purely a marketing gimmick. Firstly, residency is never guaranteed when you pass USMLE. You will be competing with the entire world to get a post. I know many who had completed USMLE and spent close to 100K and never got a residency slot.
I also know some who completed residency and came back and could not handle the cases here. Their training is similar to an MO over here and only fit to become a GP and not a specialist. They are unable to do many procedures ands unable to cope with the demand of healthcare system over here. Our healthcare system is totally different than in the US. Here, any patient can walk into your clinic and you have to sort it out. There, everything is already sorted out by the emergency department! You won’t understand this unless you are in the system.
Hi Dr Paga. I just completed housemanship 2 months ago and currently continuing my service as MO in Serdang. my question is, if I plan on quitting (by the way I’m fully registered) but yet to complete my 2 years compulsary service, what would be the consequences of my actions? Would I still be eligible to practice medicine privately? And what are the options I have if I plan to work other than medically related work field. Your thoughts on this would help me a lot. Thanks in advance doc.
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Without completing compulsory service you will not get APC to practise. THus any practise would be deemed illegal. However, you can do non-clinical jobs with no patient contact.
Dear Dr,
I’ve been an avid follower of your blog since I was in Form 4, now currently finishing my final year in Numed under JPA. My uncle is your patient in Colombia!
I have a strong inclination in Plastic Surgery, after my few month elective in the department in UK. I love the range of surgeries i could do and wanted to see how i could become a plastic surgeon in Malaysia.
However. after a bit of research, I dumbfounded by how little Malaysia has to offer for doctors who plan on specialising in plastics. The one Masters programme is in USM, and will not be recognised elsewhere in the world.
I will be getting my GMC accreditation soon after 2 years of housemanship, and am also considering applying for deferment from JPA to do my core training in the UK.
What is your comments on this? I’m sure you must have more knowledge on the training system for Masters here.
Thank you in advance. If you have some spare time, I’d be very keen on visiting you at Colombia for a cup of coffee! Numed is changing the game for Malaysian graduates by allowing us to get full GMC accreditation locally
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Do you already have a job for CST? If yes, and you can get a deferment from JPA, that’s great! It would be a long deferment thought, at least 8 years?
She has not completed medical school yet.
Harsh reality but sorry and maybe you can padam your hope of getting a CST spot in the UK and start looking for viable alternatives. Unless the current immigration rule changes, your chances are virtually 0 as you won’t be able to apply for Round 1 (CST spots rarely have any leftover for Round 2).
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That’s what I heard too. I know of someone who was “F3” for 6 months at a time, waiting for CST, apparenly gave up waiting and doing O&G now.
Yes, I am aware that Numed has arranged for certain hospitals in Malaysia to be recognised for internship training to get GMC registration.
Firstly, I would advise you to do housemanship before deciding what to specialise in. Trust me, your view on certain field will change once you know the reality of working as a doctor and the stress level. I lost count on the number of students who wanted to become this and that but ended up doing something else, some even quitting medicine all together.
Secondly, just because you have GMC full registration, it does not mean you are going to get a training post in UK directly. Most who I know, even after passing PLAB they only manage to get a non-training post. Some came back after a year as they could not get a training post. The Visa is just for non-training post.
Plastic surgery is a subspecialty field which use to be done after completing general surgery training. This means 4 years of General surgery Master’s and 3 years plastic surgery training after that. The only direct program is the USM program of 4 years. You must understand that plastic surgery involves fine surgery and it needs good hand skills. Not many have that and I know a few who quit half way.
Even in UK, if at all you can get into the training post, it will take about 8 years to complete the training, which includes 2 years of General surgery training.
You can email me for a cup of coffee!
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I hope you do understand that a GMC accreditation does not guarantee a place in a UK/EU foundation year.
Like Dr Paga said, why not carry out your housemanship first and see where it take you. You might be surprised to find out they plastics isn’t for you because medicine is a very diverse field of interest.
Also, no offense but if you are a JPA scholar, please commit to your dues by giving back to the country as it is the tax payers money that gave you the opportunity.
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Dear Dr,
I had read through few of your posts. Many people said that pharmacist has become oversaturated.What I know is there are 3 main fields pharmacist will go which are community pharmacy, hospital and industry.When I search on internet ,most jobs related to industry are sales rep.
1)From what you know , is that true pharmacist is saturated in 2018?
2)Is it hard to get a pharmacist job in hospital ?
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The number of post in civil service is saturated and that’s why the government now allows internship in private retail sector. However, overall we still need pharmacist especially if dispensing separation occurs
Dear sir,
I’m really sorry to bother you. I will be completing my stpm next year and I’m keen to take up medicine. As I’m from Sibu, Sarawak and also not very well off financially (I didn’t qualify for any scholarships despite being a straight A student unfortunately ) I decided to choose Segi as my first choice.
I considered more established schools like IMU, Monash or even NUMed (although I hear it’s been getting a bad rep lately) but the tuition fees as well as the cost of living is well out of bounds for me financially.
I know that the Segi MBBS programme is new and the facilities are limited but what are your opinions on it? It’s the only uni that I know off that is pretty flexible with the tuition fees and from the admissions team that I’ve met at fairs, they’ve been very accommodating (unlike some unis whom for most part I don’t understand seem to send the most unfriendly recruiters during fairs)
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Can’t comment much as they have not produced that many graduates yet.
I would definitely recommend Segi because the cohorts are smaller than most other universities due to their limited facilities. Which is a good thing!
Also, they’re the only uni attached to SGH so there’s definitely a lot of room for you to carry out your formal training uninterrupted.
Yes, they’re new (they only had their first batch graduating in 2016) but if your finances are restricted, I think segi would be a better fit than Taylor’s/ MSU/ mahsa.
I won’t really recommend the unis you mentioned because they tend to be very competitive as most are top sponsored students and trust me it’s not conducive at all to study in such an environment.
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One thing that you have to bare in mind, those people you meet at education fair are all marketing personnel who trying hard to sell you their University.
I never believe anything coming out from a marketing personnels’ month especially when it comes to payments, talking pro and cons about the organization they representing.
Asking their own students will be the best,as most of them will give you real answers.
Yes, of course. Everyone will say their uni is the best in the world!
A very well thought out posts again, Sir. Bullying and abuse has become so rampant nowadays it’s becoming hard to differentiate between what should be expected when you’re entering clinical practice and what is considered abuse or harassment.
My own daughter who’s just in Year 2 says she’s often subjected to disparaging remarks from her seniors who are either in Year 4/5 during her hospital visits. So it seems like the bullying starts in school to me. Perhaps it’s our culture or perhaps it’s the communication barrier that makes our words seem harsher sometimes. My daughter once called me crying from a toilet while she was having her visit because she was called stupid and “blur” by a Year 5 student in front of a patient and his family after she couldn’t get the diagnosis right. I told her to toughen up and get used to it because she’s gonna face even greater hurdles once she starts working but to voice out if it crosses the verbal boundary.
My son who graduated years ago and is now working as a senior officer says he’s seen so many of his nice colleagues seemingly turn into horrible people when it comes to the fresh housemen. Some even sent a few female housemen crying out of the ward! When he asked why they were acting that way, they simply told him it was how their seniors before and it was to toughen them up. Yes, the quality of the graduates have decidedly deteriorated over the years but is scolding the harshly instead of teaching them properly going to help? Is this what our society have come to?
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Hi doctor. May I know, is it possible to further my studies in masters programme( biomedical engineering) without completing my housemanship?
My second question will be is it possible for fresh undergraduate sit for mrcp part 1 while waiting for housemanship placement?
My final question would be what r the courses, programmes and options available for us to prepare for housemanship during this waiting period? Thanks Dr.
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Biomedical engineering has nothing to do with clinical medicine. Thus no issue. There is a requirement that you need atleast 1 year of working experience before sitting for Part 1 MRCP. Please check with MRCP website. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any courses that prepares for housemannship$
Thanks a lot dr.
What is the update on the first batch of contract houseman who would be completing their 2 year contract at the beginning of this December 2018?
Will they all be offered the contrat MO ?
The contract will be for 4 years, to complete the compulsory service. The first batch will finish in Dec 2020, that’s where the problem will start.
In my opinion, all positions must be contract-based to be fair to all .If hospital jobs are too stable, people have no motivation to work hard.