First Attempt - House Officers: The Bitterness of Reality

I have always had a lot of opinions regarding many issues. Most of the time, my opinions are only voiced to family and friends. But sometimes I feel that I want a bigger audience. I know it’s a lot to ask for, but there is nothing wrong in trying is there? So I decided to get a larger audience. The easiest mean would be social media but the audience was restricted to friends and acquaintances only. I wanted to reach out to strangers too. So the newspaper would be my best bet. I know it’s tough but I really wanted to get at least one of my article published. Besides, it is also one of the items in my bucket list. 

I came across an article in the local newspaper, The Star. This article formed an opinion in my head. So straight to the computer and I started writing. I kept it short as most of the tips regarding letters to newspaper editors advised to do so. On 19^th January 2013 I sent out my first article to the editor of The Star newspaper. Unfortunately it didn’t get published. Well, that’s what I think since I didn’t even get a response.

This was my first attempt and it failed. But it’s alright, my spirit will not falter. I will keep on trying until I get published. Since I didn’t get to publish in the newspaper, I decided to post here in my blog. At least the article gets published somewhere. Below is the article I wrote:

House Officers: The Bitterness of Reality

I refer to the letter “Stressed from still working long hours” (The Star, Jan 8). Much has been said about this article especially in the social media with some sparking healthy discussions and not so healthy ones too.

Some have taken into themselves to support the writer as they also go through the same type of “stress” and “difficulty”. Not forgetting, the notion “try putting yourselves in our shoes” was also thrown around. Meanwhile others have dismissed the claims of the writer stating that things were far worse before and the house officers of the current generation should be thankful for what they have.

Let us not jump into any boat without analyzing what was said and what was intended to be said. The main complain of the writer was the long working hours without any days off. The writer states that there is a need to work for an average 12 hours a day and seven days a week.

Yes, it is evident that most house officers do work for such long hours and sometimes even more. But this should not be a surprise or something unexpected. The working hours of a typical house officer and the difficulties they go through are known even to common people. House officers should have known this before choosing this career.

It is understood that some would have chosen this career as a means of doing kind and noble work. They would have made the choice without totally understanding the inner workings of a house officer’s life. Nevertheless, they would still have been exposed to all the hardship a house officer faces when attending their practical training as medical students.

The long working hours and the extensive mental exhaustion is already out there in the open for everyone to see and hear about. There is no illusion portraying house officers as having an easy life. This career is chosen with an enlightenment that tough times are ahead and a lot of self sacrifices are needed to pull through. Nobody is tricked into this job saying that it is all glamour and fortune and then all of sudden get thrown into heap of never ending work.

The writer also wrote that they are being overworked to their physical and mental limit. Only half of the statement is agreeable to. A house officer is usually the first person to attend to a patient. He needs to clerk the patient as quickly and thoroughly as possible without missing any important details that might be relevant and at the same time coming up with a preliminary diagnosis and plan of treatment before discussing the case with a medical officer or physician. All of this needs to be done as quickly, correctly and as professionally as possible due to the fact that traffic of patients in a general hospital is often high and multiplies even higher during festive seasons. Hence, house officers are pushed to their mental limits. But physical limits, not necessarily.

A house officer might work long hours without sleep or rest while clerking patients, diagnosing, planning treatments, completing procedures and writing reports. But is this really pushing physical limits. Do not forget that we live in a country where some of the average Malaysian does three different jobs in one day. No, I am not talking about working in an office during the day, being an online blogger and also doing online business (which is also quite taxing sometimes). But I am talking about jobs which involve hard labour.

I am talking about people, who clean the roads, collect the garbage and wash the toilets during the day, work in restaurants and grocery shops in the evening and even find the time to work night shift in factories or the famous night time job of being a “Pak Guard”. Some of them do all these while having only a bicycle as their means of transport. This is what pushing physical limits really means. Let us not belittle these hardworking Malaysians by claiming some of the work we do is physically exhausting.

The core complain is house officers are required to work long hours with less than two consecutive off days. If the working hours are such, and all the house officers share the same workload while being busy from the time they punch in to the time they punch out, then isn’t this deemed as necessary workload. The health service deals with saving lives. How is it possible to grant off days to house officers when they themselves agree that all the while they are at work, they are constantly busy treating patients. We cannot possibly put patient’s disease and their well being on hold can we?

It’s not that we are demanding the house officers to work day in and day out without any break. And we do understand that the writer was just voicing his opinion so that every house officer would enjoy the benefit of reduced working hours. Though the intention was noble, the manner it was approached does not seem so. It only reflected house officers as full of complains and nothing else. It is about time our culture of complaining be accompanied by the solution as well.

Who else better to provide suggestions to the problems we face then ourselves. The house officers are the one apparently being burdened by the system. Why not find a way to work around the very system that burdens them. Discuss with fellow house officers and work out a plan that will reduce their working hours but not reduce the quality of their work. Bring forward these issues with respected medical officers and superiors. Not being able to do this for fear of extension and not having a say by being a houseman is not acceptable. In a department full of superiors, I’m sure if looked hard enough there would be at least one superior who would be willing to listen and extent a helping hand.

Being a house officer is not all that easy, but it is also not all that hard. Be truthful to your profession, fight for your right but fight accordingly. Each and every day, doctors, be it house officers, medical officers or specialist; sacrifice their time and energy for the well being of others. Our support and salute goes to each and every one of them and hopefully some of us can learn from their sacrifices.

Mouposu Van Pyke

PS: If anyone is wondering why the article is signed “Mouposu Van Pyke”, it is actually an anagram of my name, Venoo Kuppusamy. I just thought it would be something creative.