Just when you think you have seen the absolute DEPTHS of our government's stupidity and selfishness, they surprise us yet again. There is apparently a bottomless abyss when it comes to the intelligence of our "esteemed" ministers. For decades now, the government has been forcing doctors in this country to serve three years of compulsory service before they are given the licence to practice privately. This is on top of the housemanship training which used to be one year long, but was extended to two years in 2008. That means doctors now have to work in government service for a minimum of 5 years. The housemanship was extended on the pretext of giving the new doctors more time to be learn the ropes, but we all know better. Doctors who complete housemanship do not leave, but have to continue working and training in government hospitals for another 3 years, so the extension of the housemanship is merely a poorly disguised extension of compulsory government service. That's apparently not enough. The government is now considering extending the 3 year compulsory service to 5 years or 10 years. Take a look at this news report : If the government extends the compulsory service to just 5 years, then all doctors will be forced to work for the government for at least 7 years before they are allowed to practice privately. If they extend it to 10 years, then they will be forced to work for 12 years. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you want to be a doctor if you know that you will be FORCED to work for the government for at least 7-12 years? During that time, you will have to be content with a much lower salary, and endure transfers to any place that the government wants you to go. For non-Bumiputra doctors, you also have to put up with officially-sanctioned discriminatory policies, and lower prospects for promotions. In particular, you will have to live with the fact that you are not allowed to apply for local specialization courses until you have completed your compulsory service. If the government persists with their plan, it will result in new doctors migrating to other countries where there is no such thing as compulsory service. It will also discourage students from taking up medicine as a career choice. Unless they intend to pick government service as their career path, there is little incentive for doctors to practice here. They will have to weigh the benefits of practicing here (friends and family roots) against the costs (7-12 years of servitude). I believe the costs will be too prohibitive for many doctors, especially if they are not Bumiputras. I really hope the government THINKS PROPERLY and THINKS HARD before they extend the compulsory service. Extending compulsory service may be a "cheap" way to get doctors to work for the government but it is not the right way. If you want more doctors to remain in government service, then you should improve the condition of government service : 1. Discard all discriminatory policies and enforce strict meritocracy in the training and promotion of doctors and allied medical staff. 2. Reduce the insane number of working hours that many doctors have to put up with. Make sure they have enough rest! 3. Provide additional perks like INSURANCE! Doctors, like all government servants, are not covered by any insurance, not even SOCSO. Right now, they get NOTHING if they get injured or killed while in government service. You will notice that I never even mentioned an increase in salary. There is no doubt that the salaries of doctors in government service are a pittance compared to those in private practice, but there are so many doctors who took up the profession because they want to help people. If you just improve their working conditions and provide them with right kind of support, they will be more than happy to continue in government service. Instead of forcing doctors to work for you, why not make government service so attractive, they will all want to work for you? Why insist on using the stick, when a carrot would be far more effective? Why???
It is simple really.... Just have whatever govro 'print up'/give all the cash needed to teach and pay doctors dirty rich. Wan get rich? Be a doctor.
ROTFL!! Well, the trouble is not the low pay, but rather the poor working condition. Let me quote a letter by a Malaysian doctor working in the US :
ok... let trin add they only have to work 8 hours a day. (then let next well trained/paid guy/gal take over). not kidding.
It's hard to imagine that anyone would want someone cutting on them without rest in the las two days... Amazing contrast of medical environments. Thanks for sharing!
Over here, it's common for doctors to work for 36 hours at a time. That's a full day, followed immediately by overnight call, and then continuing with another full day. As such, going on-call even EOD (every other day) can quickly wear down any doctor. My brother once had to work for 72 hours non-stop! That's three consecutive full days + overnight calls. Of course, you are officially allowed to sleep during your calls (if there are no patients who need attending to) but unless you have a particularly light call, it's very common to be woken up several times a night to attend to patients. So it's not realistic to assume that a doctor can get sufficient rest during his/her calls. In fact, there have been many, many reports of doctors falling asleep in all kinds of places and situations - nodding off during surgery, at traffic stops, while driving back, etc. But does our Health Ministry care? Apparently not. IMHO, if they improve the working condition and give their doctors enough rest, it would go a long way to reducing the number of doctors who leave public service for greener (and less stressful) pastures.
