A Humble Doctor

8:18 AM

A few days back, a screen capture of a surgeon bashing an MO from primary care on Facebook went viral. It even got the attention of the Health D-G. I won't paste the screen capture here as I am sure most of my fellow readers have already read it on Facebook or Whatsapp. Basically, it goes something like this (in no particular order);

"What la, KK MOs. Which hole did they come from?"

"It is worse teaching MOs from KK than HOs"

"These MOs are like cows"

But is this something new? Specialist (and even MOs) from each discipline will rubbish the other disciplines. Surgeons will say physicians only know how to order tests and gets nothing done, while the physicians will say surgeons only know how to potong. From my personal observation the top of the hierarchy always goes to the surgical based discipline while the bottom most are the doctors from primary care. Even the public has this mindset, doctors working in the hospitals are ALWAYS better than those in Klinik Kesihatan and primary care.

Having experienced both sides of the divide, I think those surgeons should have a go at life in Klinik Kesihatan. Yes, there are MOs who lenggang kaki and do nothing. They sit in their comfy chairs and order other junior MOs to see cases in Maternal and Child Health clinics and Outpatient departments. They see very minimal patients and sometimes don't even do physical examinations. But most of the other MOs do proper work. Unlike in the hospital setting, doctors in primary care see EVERYTHING under the sun. We refer to the specialist clinics whenever it is deemed necessary.

On top of that there is MCH. I had to tag 3 months to learn how to do transabdominal ultrasound (TAS) properly. You miss something and you might end up in a mortality meeting. You might even end up having to present at a mortality meeting when you have never seen the deceased in your life! For example, an Orang Asli lady died during labor at home in the pedalaman not too long ago. The deceased NEVER visited the clinic to get herself checked. The doctor at the clinic was hauled up because no one went out and searched for the deceased when she was pregnant.This is despite the clinic always being packed to the brim.

Then, there is the continuous health awareness programs as part of the key performance index. There is a specific number of individuals that should be screened for any non communicable diseases. If the KPI is not met, akan dapat surat cinta. Doctors at KKs are also required to give talks to the community and react to any outbreaks. The recent Dengue outbreak got most MOs in KKs going bananas.

Of course, no one sees all this. In their mind doctors in KK ONLY see cough and cold cases and a bit of diabetes and hypertension. They failed to realize that these doctors in primary care are doing their best to keep patients out of the hospital.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

On another note, I think those surgeons are kacang lupakan kulit. How does any doctor become a specialist? Why are they good at what they do? They most likely forget that

"PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT"

In order to practice they need to do the same things over and over again until they are good at what they do. Since medicine is such a large field of knowledge, can everyone become SPECIAL in EVERYTHING? I wouldn't want a surgeon to treat me if I have a heart attack. It's not because I hate them. It's because they are not trained to do that. They might know the basics of giving aspirin, plavix, morphine and adequate oxygen but try ask a surgeon to list ALL the contraindications of streptokinase and you might get a blank stare.

I had a colleague in Emergency Department (ED) who wanted to apply for an MO post in Radiology. He already had a year of service in ED with a good service record. The Head of Department then told him that he is not suitable. The HOD boasted that his other MOs are all from district hospitals and are of high value. The HOD even suggested him to get into Anaesthesiology and apply back to Radiology later. Apparently for that HOD, ED experience was no good.

One day a group of Radiology MOs demanded that a patient go to ED first to get sedated even though it was a scheduled (by appointment) visit. There was no emergency at all. My colleague and I thought;

"You have oxygen ports at you CT scan room. You have a fully equipped emergency trolley as well. As you are walking to the ED, you are already holding the vials of medicine. Plus your HOD is so proud of you guys and think ED is no good. Why can't you do it all by yourself?"

After a bit of argument and "I will tell my boss" threats from their side, I just told my boss (whom was sitting next to me). In the end they had to do it themselves.

What can we learn from this wayang kulit?

1. You cannot be good in everything. In some point of your profession, you will need help from other disciplines as well. Always be humble.

2. COURTESY. A bit of 'please' and some politeness is very much appreciated. If you say things politely, people will help you out.

Here's a simple word to sum things up.

HUMBLENESS

Stay humble and people will respect you. You don't have to demand for respect, you WILL get respect.

MOfrust

MO Frust

I'm MOfrust. Medical doctor, blogger and author. I blog about life as a doctor in a very Malaysian way. I express myself in Bahasa Melayu, English and the all so tasty rojak language. You don't have to be in the medical field to enjoy my musings.