Who to blame?

Talking about the news, I'm sure the whole doctor community is abuzz with a politician who apparently had caught two doctors in HKL 'napping'.

and news from the grapevine is, the 20 patients were actually just 8 cases, the rest being relatives and the two doctors were not even on duty! But of course, these are the things that doesn't end up on front pages of newspapers.

I feel sorry for us lot, sometimes. We work way beyond our exhaustion sometimes; returning home way past dusk - just to make sure operations are done or that patients are escorted safely - but most times, things are just out of our control.

Take last Sunday, and I hope I don't get into trouble for this. We had three elective and one emergency case waiting to be done. I had gone for morning rounds with boss and proceeded to OT as usually he expects us to prepare the patient before (if he needs to) he comes in and does the operation.

Lo and behold, the anaesth MO informs me that the airconditioning in the OT had tripped during the night and the temperature of the OT had gone into the 30s. So, I waited and waited and after two hours, the aircond went on to trip two more times and the OT temp never came down below 22.

and this is the OT that had just been completed at the end of last year. Yes, I am talking about a 4-month-old OT and already it has been piling a bunch of incident reporting with regards to the airconditioning, the air pressure and what nots. Not to mention the door which is now coming off the wall, the broken hinges and the OT entrance which is like a mini waterfall come rain.

We ended up cancelling the cases and only managed to squeeze in one emergency case. But patients don't see the goings on behind closed doors, all they knew was that they had to fast for three days and STILL no sign of the op being done.

It is frustrating when your patient is upset and you know it isn't your fault. But who do you blame?

Not only do you have to deal with things that are occuring internally, you also have to deal with external stuff, like the expectations and attitudes of your patients. When I worked at the Outpatients Department (OPD), I had a girl who kicked my door just because I refused to give her an MC. She didn't have any complaints, all she came for was some allergy medication and she informed me that her boss had told her to get an MC. It is sad, but I know a lot of my colleagues give in just because we don't have time to deal with silly things like this.

Sometimes when I hang out at the OPD and perform routine medical examinations (RME) on students about to fly off for their degree in medicine, I jokingly ask them whether they know what they are getting themselves into. They smile with the youthful confidence that only the young (and ignorant? Hahaha) possess and I wish them luck.