It’s the time of the year when we celebrate Nurses’ Day again. And the President will give out the much anticipated President’s Nurse Awards to several nursing leaders each year on Nurses Day. In every hospital in Singapore there will much revelry and gaiety. Hospital administrators and doctors alike will have to demonstrate their affection for the nurses in some way or the other. These include serving food, singing a song or maybe swallowing a live cockroach (especially if Nurses Day falls near a JCI audit). Huge bouquets of flowers will be sent between each and every hospital. I have seen a hospital give out one stalk of rose to each and every nurse. This is no mean feat as some large hospitals have more than a thousand nurses.

 

Naturally, this begs the all important question, what on earth is the male nurse going to do with all the flowers and bouquets.? Instead of roses for male nurses, can we just give the guy a can of beer? Just kidding.

 

I don’t know, call me skeptical, my take is all this fanfare and gushing of goodwill on this one day every year is but an annual short-acting anaesthetic to the fact that nurses are still underpaid and overworked in the other 364 days. Of course, seeing Prof Chee Yam Cheng playing the piano may be balm that lasts more than a day but that is only once-off for TTSH.

 

So we have Nurses Day. We also have others like Teachers Day, SAF Day, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Children’s Day, Youth Day, and maybe in the near future Harry Potter Day and Flood Day. This Hobbit thinks we should also have a Doctor’s Day. I hope respectfully the newly Elected President will take up my humble suggestion.

 

The reason for having a Doctor’s Day is obvious. It is to remind everyone that some doctors think they can make miracles and cure every father-mother-son like Harry, talk like teachers, behave like children, work like nurses, dress like youth and of course earn money like a tropical rainstorm flood.

 

What can we actually do to celebrate Doctors’ Day?

 

First, we can conduct an Unlucky Draw whereby the unlucky winner gets to be CMB for one day to see and understand actually how sucky a life of CMB is. The winner will get to sit in the CMB’s office for one day. In the morning, he will hear non-stop different doctors coming into his office to complain about poor pay, promotional prospects, lousy patients and the residency programme. In the afternoon, he can then try to feedback to the higher authorities his problems and of course the unlucky winner will either get no response or be criticized as being “not progressive”. Finally at 5pm, there will be a simulated incident whereby one of his heads of department comes in to hand in his resignation letter. Lunch is not provided, but his personal assistant for one day can buy a kopi and red bean bun from the hospital canteen for this unlucky winner (at the winner’s expense). If we are really going to have serious fun, we can even get this guy to give a talk to 200 doctors in the auditorium on why JCI audits and residency ACGME accreditation are necessary.

 

 

And then we can also have Singapore Doctor Idol where folks show off their talent. Possible items on show could include

 

• A GP trying to do a liposuction on a guy with a BMI of 23
• A residency program director trying to explain why his department fulfills ACGME’s requirements even when obviously everybody is working 101% everyday trying to clear the patient loads
• A foreign trained surgeon who only speaks English trying to take informed consent in accordance with SMC’s standards (warning – long performance hours lasting >2hours)
• Two very senior surgeons meeting after 30 years and dancing the tango till midnight

 

Next, similar to nurses, we can of course also have the President’s Award given to outstanding doctors for their outstanding contribution to medicine and health. Immediately, at least three possible candidates for the award come to mind:

 

• The doctors on the disciplinary committee that set new standards for informed consent, specifically for purportedly running hearings from 2pm to 2am on a few days and on one occasion to 4am and for deciding that obtaining consent in a suboptimal place is a critical factor in deciding what is professional misconduct. Such dedication and prowess cannot be ignored, including the great ability to give and hear sound testimony, think clearly and decide fairly at around 2 to 4am. It is interesting to note that while most resident housemen (PGY-1) cannot work past midnight but DC can run till 4am, bearing in mind folks have been working since the morning (of the previous day). This hobbit stands in awe of the stamina and incisive thinking being displayed…

 

• The doctor that was rumoured to have paid ~$6,000 per square feet for clinic space also deserves an award. After all, he has gone where no man has gone before and has showed that clinic space prices have joined the realm of other gravity-defying manifestations such as COE, Superman and push-up bras.

 

• Finally, we should give the President’s Award to the doctor who decided Singapore should adopt the ACGME Residency system. He symbolizes what a great leader is all about, a man/woman who dares to go it alone, without prior consultation with the professional bodies/stakeholders and goes for a vision that many think is impossible to achieve. This sheer improbability and audacity of thought ranks up there with Singapore in World Cup – Goal 2010 vision, Mao Tse Tung’s Great Leap Forward and Dr Evil’s plan for world conquest in Austin Powers movies parts 1, 2 and 3.

 

And of course, as part of the pomp and pageantry of the Presidential Awards for outstanding doctors, we must get Chee Yam Cheng to play the piano again at the award-giving ceremony.

Reading today’s letter by Ministry of Manpower in the Forum in response to an earlier letter by SMA President Dr Chong Yeh Woei is an exercise in the appreciation of the precision of the English language. Let’s take a look at a few statements found in the reply by MOM.

 

“However, in order to take sick leave with pay, the Employment Act states that an employee needs to obtain a medical certificate from a company or government doctor” What it means in real life, therefore, is for paid medical leave, the Employment Act states that an employee needs to obtain a medical certificate from a company or government doctor. If you see your own family GP or private specialist, good luck.

 

Even if “MOM would like to reiterate that employers should recognise medical certificates issued by any registered medical practitioner for the purpose of being absent from work due to illness”, it doesn’t mean the employee would get any pay while away that comes with the employer’s “recognition” of the MC. So MOM’s bottom line is at best recognition of “unpaid  leave” when an employee sees a doctor that is not the company or government doctor.

 

 

“This is only a minimum requirement to the employer, and does not stop an employer from recognising a medical certificate from any doctor” – that means recognition is  at the employer’s discretion” and the recognition by the employer is NOT obligatory

 

How much protection does an employee really get from the word of legislation found in the Employment Act should he produce an MC from a doctor who is neither the government nor the company doctor remains to be seen. And really what good is an MC that comes without pay is for you to conclude.

 

This is wonderful civil servant-speak, of the sort that I thought PS2000 was supposed to get rid of. But then again, this is 2011. Oh well….

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Yes, the SMA Hobbit is back. But on a different forum from the SMA News.

 

Even an old coot like this hobbit has to keep up with the times and social media simply cannot be ignored.

 

The social media offers several advantages from an established hardcopy print medium like the SMA News. For one, there is no printing press deadline to meet. The SMA news goes to print every month and this hobbit has strived hard to meet these deadlines and come up with articles with some regularity in the past. There is no such requirement with the social media such as a blog or a post on Facebook. I can post every few days or every few months.

 

Secondly, hobbit columns in the past in the SMA News have to conform to rough expectations of print space, i.e. about two pages or about 1300 words. With the social media, there is no such expectation. A post can be just several words or a few hundred words or even more than the usual 1300 words.

 

Thirdly, there is no editing or censorship by the SMA News Editorial Board. What I post on Facebook is entirely my personal business. There are pluses and minuses to this new arrangement. The main plus is that I am not subject to the Editorial Board’s decisions on what to print and what not to print. The minus is that I am entirely on my own here. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the role and responsibility of the SMA News Editorial Board. They are volunteers and they have a job to do. Having said that, that doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with their decisions even though I must respect them when I contribute to SMA News. So when the differences came to a head over a certain article, I exercised my right to retire from the SMA News as a columnist. To be absolutely clear, there were many important reasons that led me to my retirement from the News about half a year back, including the demands of work, family, but the decision of the SMA News Editorial Board not to print a certain article was also a big contributory factor.

 

Enough of the past, back to the present. Since this is my first long post here, I need to stress that whatever is posted here does NOT represent in any way the official position of the SMA on any issue. The folks in SMA have kindly set up this Facebook account for me to continue my nonsensical and personal ramblings in Cyberspace. I appreciate this opportunity and new forum and I hope you will continue to support me here virtually as you have had in the past in print.

 

As you are well aware, the Hobbit lives in a mythical parallel universe called Middle Earth. Unless otherwise and specifically stated, events and personalities referred to in this Facebook account are completely fictitious and belong to the realm of utter fantasy. If you do suspect that I am referring to anyone or any event that you think may have occurred on planet Earth (i.e. 3rd Rock from the Sun, and NOT middle-earth), then let me again reassure you your suspicions are totally unfounded and without any basis.

 

For the avoidance of doubt and to be absolutely clear – all future writings and opinions expressed here on this Facebook account are un-researched, untrue and cannot be substantiated. So read at your own risk, folks.