Doctors working long hours, yet denied benefits

 

From The Good Doctor

LET me share with you what many won’t. An average permanent medical officer in the government service earns between RM6,000 and RM8,000 a month, depending on his/her grade and the number of “on calls” he/she does.

Let me share with you what many don’t know.

A government medical officer works nearly 80 to 100 hours a week, depending on which field he or she is in (on-call can be 33-hour stretches, sometimes even without time for a meal/bath/sleep).

Now, imagine that we are moving to a time when medical officers are not having permanent posts, paid less and are not offered scholarships to pursue their specialities.

I hear of colleagues also complaining that there are some fields where they have pursued a master’s or a PhD, but without any signs of specialisation within the system.

This is the system we live in now. We work till it affects our physical and mental health but yet we are treated very badly.

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) recently conducted a poll on Twitter and it showed that on average, 95% (poll in English was 96% and in Bahasa Malaysia was 93%) of Malaysians felt that doctors were being taken for a ride.

Some of my colleagues have expressed their frustrations on the phone to me.

Some were even being denied their basic salary hike/grade hike (all of them time-based) even though they were qualified for it.

Some were told to be happy where they were and to be thankful for what they had.

Some were in tears due to changes taking place at the National Heart Institute (IJN). Their family members need to go for their appointments, but their names have disappeared from the list of patients continuing their follow-up at IJN.

They were told that their names had been “cleared” from the system because they had not attended their clinics during the pandemic.

Many were told to get referrals again from their local/nearest cardiology departments. But these doctors were reluctant to provide a referral back to IJN as they had been “instructed” not to do so.

They were told that “patient decluttering” had begun at IJN. As a result, many doctors found their family members were now not part of the shortlisted patients at IJN.

One colleague was told that government servants would have to pay for materials like stents, etc., used in heart procedures at IJN. This was something that was given for free as part of being a government servant. These stents are not cheap, with some costing as much as RM7,000.

Colleagues of mine are tired – stretched out to the max; fatigued by the pandemic. Yet, all appointments of their family members are being deferred at IJN.

Medical doctors are not getting the benefits they are entitled to; their current benefits and entitlements are being withdrawn; society jumps when the government announces any bonus for them at the beginning of the year; they have poor quality of life; they cannot specialise; and yet they are made to work like robots.

These are young doctors, with families, with children, with elderly parents, with aspirations, but who are being denied what they are entitled to at every turn.

And yet, in this country, we are willing to offer felons and people convicted in court government land, houses and perks when just by screening their accounts circulated on social media and looking at their luxurious lifestyles, they very well do not need the privileges.

Is this fair? Wake up Malaysia. - FMT

The Good Doctor is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.