to whine, to shine..?

it has been a stressful month or so at work. the ward and nursery is forever full lately, with sick babies and kids... and the ever demanding parents! they're just getting on my nerves. i mean, it's one thing if you're being worried/concerned for your kid, but it's a whole different thang when it's pure paranoia thinking doctors are there to purposely hurt your kid for fun.
i've blogged about this before but arrrrggghhh.. everyday is becoming a struggle now for me, to get my bum off the bed every morning and drag myself to work to face these parents. parents who decide to bring their kid in at 2am because the kid's been havin' cough and cold past few days, and havent been able to sleep tonight, (thus keeping the parents up as well).. and then by the time the docs do the rounds at 8am, they're already asking to go home. so i tell them "well, u just came in 5 hours ago..why not stay another night so we can observe your kid a bit more?", and when they still insist, giving us 101 reasons as to why it's difficult for them to stay on, i had no choice but to let them go (usually at their own risk (AOR) if they insist), only to have them come back two days later, cuz the kid's still sick. well, d-uh!
some of them who had insisted the earlier discharge and signed the AOR, upon seeing another doctor on re-admission, even have the nerve to say "actually the day my kid was discharged, he/she was still not that well yet but the doctor still discharged him/her anyway" !!!
aiyoh..sabar jelah..

so why do i still drag my butt to work everyday? sounds corny..but for the innocent little patients of course. they dont get to choose their parents, and some are just unlucky to get stupid ones. so screw those parents, i'm there to help the kids.. but then i dont know how long i can hold on..


patients like cute lil JK here, who has apalstic anaemia, is forever playful when she's relatively well, and refuses to stay isolated in her room.. she likes to tease me, but decides to play shy when i aimed for a shot of her picture. she btw, has great support from her parents and extended family.. and they've always been cooperative with us as well. just to point out that there are exceptions of course.

holy-olympics!2

hya.. what a way to lose.. this is probably the worst ever game played by chong wei. lin dan maintained his usual greatness and confidence, with the additional advantage of the roaring home crowd of course.. but chong wei was obviously all nerves! he had a 50-50 chance to win the gold medal, like his coach-misbun said, he's got nuthin to lose(except mebbe 1 million ringgit?;)) .. but boy was that match crappy. no negaraku for us.. but at least we got a silver. chong wei still deserves a lotta credit for that. am watching the victory ceremony.. he looks really sad.. like he's been crying even. kesian. takpe chong wei. you still did good. malaysia got a silver thanks to you. we're still proud.
my brother texted me saying he was probably at fault too, cuz he had actually watched the game and therefore had probably jinxed it. he had apparently missed all events won by the malaysian shuttlers in the olympics so far, and those matches whose scores he managed to follow live online, were the ones we lost. oh, and the only time he did catch a glimpse of a live match on tv, it was when chong wei lost in the 2nd set against hyunil in the semis. so he was being a bit (silly &)superstitious tonight and didnt want to watch the game, but everyone else in malaysia were watching, including at the warung where he was having makan, so he just had to join in. hence the loss. hehe.

azizul hasni awang made it to the top 8 in the sprint event in cycling btw.. so malaysia still got hope.

the jamaican women just swept all 3 medals for the 100m race...with 1 gold and 2 silvers! no bronze even..they were dead even at 2nd place! and just yesterday, that usain bolt (very fitting last name) won another great gold medal for jamaica in the 100m men.
just realized too that the records (world & olympics) for the women's 100m made by the great flo-jo in 1988, still remain unbroken. wow.

another wow here...unsurpirising, but wow still.. is that human fish -michael phelps- he got his eight golds, just like he wanted. cool.

in tennis-the william sisters won their doubles gold, fedex had to settle for a doubles gold as well..and he seemed real happy with that, so that's good..and rafa continued his winning streak this year with his olympic gold.

looking forward to more finals ahead.

holy-olympics!

wow.. fedex and the williams sisters are out of the singles matches! talk about this being a bad year for federer. all three are still playing in the doubles matches tho.. but still, wow.

yay to choong wei and malaysia, for making it into the finals. the other semifinals are still playing at the moment, but looks to me choong wei will most probably face lin dan in the finals on sunday. so dunno.. we'll at least get the silver for sure, but getting gold will be super duper awesome for msia. come on choong wei, make us proud.. (if myr1 mil is not motivational enough for him, i dunno what is).

that penang guy-cheng whatshisname-almost made it to the semis in archery today.. dang!

athletics have also started today, looking forward to that, as well as synchronized swimming.

well, looks like my housemates will have to continue to bear with me for hogging the tv for these 2 weeks. hee...

time well wasted

schize.. the malaysian doubles (KKK & TBH) are not looking too good at the moment.

saw the movie across the universe, musical based on the songs from the beatles. i loved it.. the songs are already great to begin with.. the story was also quite good.. the simple love story, the vietnam war, the songs, the actors.. cool. really took a liking to joe anderson, who totally looks like kurt cobain btw.
after watching this i immediately downloaded the soundtrack. nice.

also saw forgetting sarah marshall.. funny lah..worth mentioning that it shows male frontal nudity-instead of female for a change.... oh, and mila kunis is so pretty in this movie too.

lars and the real girl - interesting. liked it. ryan gosling is so cool. i prefer his acting in this one compared to half nelson.
half nelson - okay lah. biasa.

the bank job - liked it, especially because it was actually based on a real story. all that scandal. wow.

hairspray - not my kinda movie.

am playing with the idea of going to see susuk.. hmm..mebbe..

darn it..the boys lost the 1st set :(

apples and oranges comparing ringgit

Sunday August 10, 2008

Government docs want on-call allowance raised to overtime rate

By DEVID RAJAH and AUDREY EDWARDS

PETALING JAYA: Government doctors certainly have a lot to complain about, and they’re mostly to do with the much better perks offered by the private sector.

But this time, they are griping about their counterparts who do overtime at government health clinics. And it’s all about a vast discrepancy in the on-call allowance and overtime rate.

Doctors at government hospitals get a RM10 hourly on-call allowance, while those at government health clinics get RM80 for every hour’s overtime.

The hospital doctors say they have to attend to life threatening and emergency cases at casualty units, while the clinic doctors mostly only attend to patients complaining about coughs and colds.

Doctors at government hospitals have to perform on-call duty several times a month, and have called on the Health Ministry to standardise the payment rates.

“The RM10 hourly allowance for on-call doctors is grossly unfair,” said a senior doctor at a government hospital in the Klang Valley.

The doctor revealed that eight to 16 doctors were rostered for on-call duty in most large government hospitals.

”On the other hand, our counterparts at the health clinics are being paid RM80 hourly for treating patients with coughs and flu,” he said.

Other doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they preferred to serve at government health clinics which have extended operating hours to 9.30pm on weekdays, and from 8am to noon on Saturdays.

“We don’t have to work long hours and the workload is also not that heavy at health clinics,” said one doctor.

A 29-year-old doctor from Malacca said that with the current inflationary pressure, young doctors could hardly survive, especially if they were married with children.

The ministry reviewed the on-call allowance after two decades in 2005.

For weekdays, the on-call allowance was increased from RM75 to RM150 per day (calculated at the compulsory 15 hours of on-call duty which has to be performed daily), while such allowance on weekends was increased from RM113 to RM170.

The ministry started the overtime scheme at 16 government health clinics earlier this year for doctors who volunteered to work from 5pm to 9pm.

This means that a health clinic doctor who volunteers to work the four-hour period will earn RM320, compared with RM150 for a hospital doctor's 15 hours' work.

A specialist doctor cautioned that young doctors may be discouraged from serving in government hospitals if this issue was not resolved.

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai explained that “overtime” and “on-call” were different, likening them to an apple and orange situation.

“Being on call is something that all government doctors have to do while working overtime is voluntary. You cannot compare working overtime with being on call,” he clarified.

He said the ministry was not considering raising the on-call rate but pledged to work on improving benefits for doctors to retain more of them in the public sector.

...................................................................................................................................................................

what can i say? speechless sekejap..(kejap je)

okay..so apples and oranges are different..

like they mentioned in the paper there.. the apples work less hours, handle less life-threatening cases (even if they do, the plan would be-->refer to govt hospital anyway), oh, and can still get plenty of hours sleep after that, before going back to work again the next day if they have to .. AND they get paid more..
the oranges get longer hours, see more ill cases, get less hours of sleep (if we're lucky) and then still gotta continue work the next day if it's a working day.. and get paid less..

urm.. clarify again?

nuthin against the apples at all, cuz apples and oranges need each other, and should work side-by-side for the sake of the patients..

it's the big durian kahunas who dont seem to get it! yeah, okay....pledge away. *eyeroll*

ps: i wonder who that 29 year-old doctor from melaka is.. i know many who fit into that lil description ;)

pps: no...it's not moi.. was already 29 a few years ago...heh.

a lovely weekend..lovely lovely

friday nite-caught the beijing olympics opening live. a friend at work commented that half of the people in china were probably involved in the huge spectacular event. well, more than half was involved i think, probably leaving just enough for the rest to be the athletes themselves.
and the fireworks! smokin...literally...i wonder if the haze got worse after that? ;)
and twas cool seeing some of the more well-known athletes taking part in the march.. the great fed-ex, rafa (he's so cute when he smiles), kobe bryant, the williams sisters, etc..


saturday-went back to kl for a picnic potluck with a few gals from one of my old schools-mrsm taiping. it was great.. everyone havent changed much. there were the usual issues: work, politics, religion, men, gossips, sex (oh yeah)...but with most already being mothers now, it was interesting when the discussion also included issues like school fees, smart reader schools, and which laundry detergent is the best to get rid of those stubborn stains on your kids' clothes! those of us who are still child-free should have taken notes! (but none of us did, not about the detergent anyway..the sex talk was waaaaaayy more informative ;))

the venue was at the cyberjaya lake, which was nice, not crowded at all, and lots of shady areas. the only problem, which i thought was actually quite major, was the toilet facilities. the one by the car park was dirty and had no water, and the other nearest facility was at the clubhouse, supposedly only accessible to members, but we crashed in anyway. when you had to go, you had to go eh.

saturday nite-went to klia to send another friend off to japan. she's married with 4 kids, and yet is crazy enough to further her studies to get her phd. "kau betul ke tak betul ni yat?"

sunday-went down south to see another old friend, who had her 2nd baby a couple of months ago(he's a handsome baby, and they got him such a cool name!).

the handsome amir ryu a.k.a the dragon prince. move over, knox leon!

the other best part of the trip is of course, the fruits-mainly rambutans and mangosteens. yum yum!



by sunday nite, i was bushed... slept earlier than usual (after catching up the olympics highlights 'course).. but yeah, it was a lovely weekend indeed.