Housemen not over-worked in hospitals

Aidila Razak & S Pathmawathy
Jan 26, 10
11:14am

Malaysiakini

The Health Ministry has not received formal complaints from any trainee doctor (housemen) about stressful work conditions in government hospitals, said director-general Dr Ismail Merican.

He countered that, to his knowledge, some hospital wards have too many trainees who end up being under-worked.

"I'm surprised (that there are complaints)... if you go to the surgical ward, there will be 20 housemen floating around, and they will be fighting to do an appendectomy," he said in an interview.

He was asked to comment on an issue frequently raised in the 'Letters' forum of newspapers. These have highlighted work shifts for up to 36 hours if the houseman is on call - and there have been claims that call-duty could go on for 15 days a month.

Ismail conceded, though, that he has received complaints from parents of trainees, describing it as a "problem" that did not exist when he went through the system as a houseman.

"We worked much harder then and we didn't complain to (our) parents...I'm approachable, (the trainees) can e-mail or SMS me or drop by my office, but no one has complained other than the parents," he said.

In Europe, the practice of long shifts has been banned, with doctors allowed to only work a maximum of 12 hours without a break.

Housemen in Malaysia have further claimed that they are affected by bullying and the high-handedness of senior doctors, in a carry-over of treatment they themselves had suffered as trainees.

Interestingly in 2008, Ismail had revealed that many trainees cannot cope with housemanship, succumbing to neuroses (mental disorders) including anxiety, fear and anger, due to the competitive environment.

The long hours and emotional pressure are also a bone of contention, according to some trainees, because of the relatively low pay.

Their counterparts in Singapore earn S$40,000 (approximately RM86,000) a year after tax, which is almost five times more than the pay in Malaysia.

The relatively low pay has also been named as the reason for the number of doctors opting out of public service, a claim that Ismail refuted.

"A lot of government doctors and specialists are staying on because of faster promotions, better career development and perks with the civil service," he said.

In fact, he said, many private general physicians are "complaining" and "accusing (the government) of providing a better deal because (the government pays) RM80 for locum (work)", which can be undertaken in a doctor's free time.

'We won't have too many doctors'

While housemen complain that they are feeling the strain due to a shortage of doctors, Malaysian Medical Association education committee chairperson Dr N Athimulam said the country is headed for a day where doctors will need to "clamour for patients".

He said 1,200 doctors graduate from local institutions annually, with seven more private institutions to offer medical courses in the next few years.

Ismail disagreed to some extent, pointing out that the challenge is that there will not be enough doctors to serve areas in the interior of the country.

"We were thinking that perhaps by 2015 we may reach (a national doctor-patient) ratio of 1:600. But even then, I don't think it will solve the problem because there are states like Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang (which will still face a shortage)," he said.

"In Kuala Lumpur you can get a ratio of 1:300 or 1:400, better than in Britain. But if you go to Sabah, it's about 1:3,000 or 1:2,500. There's a disparity in the doctor-patient ratio," he added.

Housemen lack basic know-how

Housemen lack basic know-how

By : Annie Freeda Cruez

NST, 31st January 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: Some medical universities, both local and overseas, are churning out doctors who cannot carry out common medical procedures, have no proper clinical exposure, cannot communicate effectively and cannot even take down the history of patients properly for diagnosis and treatment.

Senior medical consultants in government hospitals are now saddled with the task of having to retrain these people to ensure they meet the country's standard of medical practice.

Some of these fresh doctors are retained in their houseman training postings for years, some even up to six years, because they cannot meet the standards. The compulsory housemanship is two years.

In view of this problem, the Malaysian Medical Council has issued letters to all heads of department in government hospitals where housemen are posted to open a file on each of them, containing information on the university they graduated from, their performance and shortcomings.

It is learnt that by the end of the year, the MMC and Health Ministry will nail down the sub-standard medical universities and tell them to buck up.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital's Medical Department head, Datuk Dr Jeyaindran Sinnadurai, said housemen come from 300 medical colleges all over the world. These colleges churn out 1,200 doctors a year and this number is expected to increase to almost 2,000 next year.

"When they come back to work in Malaysia we have been forced to extend the period of housemanship from one year to two years in order to ensure the standard of medical practice is maintained in this country for the safety of our patients," he told the New Straits Times.

Dr Jeyaindran handles about 140 housemen a year and he noticed that some 15 per cent of them do not have enough experience to take down the medical history of patients.

"When they are taught to take the history properly and put the findings and various symptoms in a sequential order they can come to a proper diagnosis very rapidly," he said.

However, he added, this was seriously lacking in many new doctors because they have not been trained during their years in clinical exposure. Thus, during their housemanship training programme they needed to be retrained to do this properly.

"Because they have to be retrained, some of their postings are extended," he said.

Dr Jeyaindran has come up with a syllabus where a house officer must have core knowledge and experience before he leaves for his next posting.

"A houseman who comes in for training should be able to manage hypertension, asthma, diabetes and common medical emergencies appropriately based on current clinical practice guidelines, besides acquiring adequate generic skills," he added.

He said some were never taught this properly during their years in medical school and hence they were taught and assessed in a fair and objective manner during their training.

"We want doctors to examine patients properly and not take notes from the nurses' chart.

"We also do not want doctors to be over-dependent on investigative procedures which is time-consuming and expensive.

"One loses the ability to use clinical acumen to make judgment when he becomes too dependent on procedures for a result and diagnosis," said Dr Jeyaindran.

He also expressed great concern that some house officers were not able to perform even the most common procedures such as setting up an intravenous line, central line, and inserting a chest tube.

There have been complaints from patients that there were housemen who cannot even draw blood for a blood test and had to seek the help of nurses.

"Miscommunication with patients can also lead to a lot of problem and this we have encountered with housemen," he said.

"To be a good doctor it is not how much knowledge you have... it is clinical acumen and the skills developed in treating a patient.

"Medicine is not black and white but lots of grey in between and in order to identify the grey areas the only way is the more you see, the more you do, the more you understand," he added.

Dr Jeyaindran said housemen have become something like a production line.

"They come, they take some history of patients and go away.

"They never come back to check whether their diagnosis of the patient was correct or wrong," he added.