Second Government Medic Dies (Suicide) At Work

 

https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/national/assistant-medical-officer-commits-suicide/ar-BB1cWq5Y?ocid=msedgntp

• IPOH: health ministry staff under severe stress, took his own life 
• at Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun here yesterday
• 39-year-old assistant medical officer jumped from 3rd floor of hospital
• body found by security guards at 6.30pm
• victim died from serious head injuries
• “note found in his bag” - duty at the time
• sad for past few days, did not speak of his troubles 
• victim facing some health issues
• working at hospital for over a year 
• planned to get married in May

https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/national/a-frontliner-died-from-lethargy-but-at-hospitals-life-goes-on-we-re-walking-zombies-says-doctor/ar-BB1cTKXj?ocid=msedgntp

         Innalillahi wa inna ilayhi raajiun

• frontliner passed away from due to exhaustion lethargy 
• death was announced by Skuad Pengurusan Jenazah 
• last picture of him before he fell ill, he was just too tired, exhausted 
• due to workload while working as frontliner battling COVID-19
• he slept off while working and fainted the post read. 
• heart-wrenching image of sleeping doctor 
• doctor's death, photo reminder of frontliners being pushed  
• Walking zombies
• Speaking to Rojak Daily, Dr Jean (not real name) said hospitals from bad to worse
• We're walking zombies. nightmare here, nothing much we can do
• we have no choice but to suck it up and push on," she said. 
• daily workload, Dr Jean said on-site investigating work was more prevalent now

"We have to go to site, investigate area report back to analyse 
take samplings, post-exposure, post quarantine, swab, neverending 
doctors are often stuck in PPE suits for five to six hours
we push on until we can't take it
When we surrender, another person takes over
Crowds to clear, discharge areas, another nightmare. 
for example Klinik Kesihatan has four to five medical officers 
This small group reassess 700 patients / day to discharge or not
It's a crazy number but we have to do it. 
We just have to put on our suits and complete checks for the whole crowd
work at district office. Data sorting, reports, referrals. 
It's work, work and more work and this is just in 24 hours. 
"When the new days starts, the cycle begins again," she said. 
Rest? Eat? We do it when we can

• I'm super duper tired. I hardly talk to family or friends. 
• growing COVID-19 numbers were extremely frightening. 
• "We don't have enough beds. We don't have enough equipment 
• frustrates me that people are still taking things so lightly. 
• "When you allow quarantine at home, they're out and about she said angrily 
• Lying patients aplenty
• Patient lying about who they've met, where they have gone enormous problem.
• I actually got COVID a few months ago because of a patient that lied
• "I had pneumonia and was admitted but God healed me," she said. 
• people to be more responsible and transparent. 
• Don't lie. Don't take COVID lightly and go about your life like there's no pandemic 
• Government, I wish they would just tighten regulations for MCO 2.0. 
• 
  
• "Stop pleasing people and just buck up. 
• Your frontliners are wearing out. We're dying!" she said
• dire situation at our hospitals
• health DG warned cases could rise to 8,000 a day if we do not control spread 

My comments :

This is the second death of a medical personnel while at work in the hospitals. Just a few days ago a doctor died of exhaustion while at work in another government hospital. Granted that these cases may have underlying issues (previous medical condition, personal issues, domestic stress etc) n'theless we cannot dismiss the possibility that the severe stresses and the working conditions at the hospitals caused by the corona virus is taking a toll on our medical personnel.

The doctor who died the other day may have had underlying health issues but the poor young man did not die in a hospital bed or in the ICU or at home - if he already had serious medical conditions.  Instead he died at work in the hospital where he was obviously over worked and stressed out.

The Corona Virus pandemic is indeed causing great stress among doctors and nurses and the health authorities need to pay closer attention to this problem.

The corona virus pandemic is something new. The whole world has never faced something like this before. There are no text book solutions. And there are numerous 'never seen before' challenges.  So we have to tackle these problems one by one as they pop up.

Overworking the doctors and nurses is obviously one such problem. I believe we have enough medical personnel. There needs to be better management of our medical personnel and resources so that the doctors and nurses do not get stressed out.

What is happening in the hospitals is that doctors and medical personnel are being redeployed from various other departments (paediatrics, O n G, emergency etc) to the Corona Virus wards.  As a result there is a shortage of doctors and medical personnel at the other departments. This has been going on for months now. So doctors and medical personnel are pulling long hours in all other departments as well.

If I may suggest what the hospitals need now is an industrial engineer or a time management specialist or a scheduling specialist. People who have studied queue-ing theory.  How to schedule things at the factory, at the hospital etc. You need their help to figure out how to put the doctors and nurses on proper shifts which do not stress people out to the extent of causing deaths and suicides.   

Yes there may be other underlying causes but both the deaths happened at their work place.

Artikel ini adalah pandangan penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili MMKtT.