Can A Government Doctor Rant?

I was taken aback by this article written by Azman Anuar, a writer in Utusan Malaysia - Doktor cuma 'berdiam' bila rakyat kritik khidmat mereka. It was published last weekend and it resolves around the recent 'revelation' by a Deputy Minister who 'caught' a couple of off-duty Houseman in Hospital Kuala Lumpur actually ...... being off-duty, apparently that is not allowed, darn!

Anyhow, the article struck a chord since there were no official backing by the MMA concerning the incident that clearly could have brought the profession into disrepute. Kudos to the Health Minister though for uncharacteristically sticking his neck out and rebut the accusation head on.

My second observation is the amount of public sympathy around the incident, although again they are in trickles. I came across a couple of patients today that had plenty of nice things to say about Government Doctors, but unfortunately they are common people whose voice were rarely heard in the media.

I think on the whole, the public still respect us. Unfortunately in our busy live, we often forget common courtesy. We take the traffic police for granted although they were trying their hardest. How often do we give the government clerk behind the counter abuse, not to mention tips about how to work more efficient - well all of us have our opinion and these government servant are easily seen as easy target.

I have learned from early on that making a fuss against patient won't let us anywhere. People in authority are more likely tell us off if a complaint comes rather than reward us for a job well done. We government servants are always on the defensive. There are plenty of press about policeman taking grafts. I am sure there are ten times the number of those refusing bribes - but because the story was never told, nobody had the sense to find it out. Even if so, the story won't be sensational enough the become believable.

I have been shouted and abused upon by my patients or their relatives before, to the extend that even my nurses wonder if I have understood what the patient were doing to me. Most of the time it was more of the spur of the moment. When the red mist settles, they will often come and ask for apology. This is the time when I strike back and reminded them that all the staffs here have feelings and I will be very blunt with them - I may forgive but rarely forgets. The patient then tend to be doubly nice to us afterwards, maybe it is my warped sense of defense or just my nature of passive aggressiveness. 

If our salary goes by the number of times we were abused, I am sure I am a rich man by now ....

Irfan's First Proper School Day

Finally Anita got her wish. She always dreamt that one day, her kids will be attending school and she will have the day all to herself. Today is a step in the right direction. Irfan attended her first proper pre-school day.

The day obviously started early. We sent Idlan to school first just before eight. Got Irfan ready, and off we went to Bangsar. Irfan attended the Pingu's English class, just opposite Bangsar Village II, a strategic place for Anita to indulge should she be able to in the future after dropping Irfan off.

We were rather nervous at the beginning, not sure if he will cause a ruckus. In the first 20 minutes or so Irfan was rather quiet. The principal and owner of the centre, Puan Sarah was there. They were expecting another child but he/she did not turn up. While Irfan was getting introduced to the place - and watching a couple of episodes of Pingu of course - Anita was chatting with the principal. She is the sister of the founder of Krista Kindergarten and she herself owns a couple of franchises in Setiawangsa and Melawati. The idea of the Pingu's English school in Malaysia has always been her idea for a while now, but due to certain circumstances it was only launched last year.

She appears to have vast experience. She studied initially as a fashion designer in Melbourne before going into education. She did pre-school training in London and has been involved in schools and kindergarten to a certain extend for at least the last 10 years. She certainly was very approachable. Looking at her we realised that she has been in a few magazines and newspaper articles before.

Currently there a around a dozen of students. Since the classes were scattered, we have not met any of Irfan's fellows. He will be attending the classes three times a week, lasting an hour each. So the school run will be rather interesting. As soon as Irfan finished his class, Anita will have to rush to fetch Idlan.

However today, Irfan did not want to go home at 11. I had to fetch Idlan by myself and then took him to Bangsar. The first day went well. No tantrum. He enjoyed his colouring and plasticine work. Looking forward for tomorrow's class.

 

After class we had lunch at Bangsar Village, then went to Kiz gym for the kids. Anita was checking out Fit for 2 next door. Quite interesting. A keep fit thing for mum and baby. The shop was empty though but the food looked nice. We drove home around 3, and the two boys were fast asleep in the car and did not move a beat when we took them into their bed. Hopefully Irfan still have the same enthusiasm for Pingu tomorrow.

Arrived in KL

Finally made it to Gombak in one piece. The traffic was smooth but we did take our time. After breakfast, we went for a drive and stroll in Telok Kemang. The weather was not too hot and it was pretty windy to keep everything bearable. No ice-creams for the boys ..... and Daddy though because all of us got runny nose. We had a ride on a horse-cart though. We then drove to Eagle Ranch, about 5 km south of Teluk Kemang. It is a cowboy-themed park. We just hang around for 20 minutes as it was time for lunch.

We went to the Golf Club for lunch and left PD around 2, dropping my Mum at Bukit Antarabangsa on the way back. Nice day all around.

I managed to upload most of the pics already. You can either follow this link or to my Flickr page

Time to Head Home

Well things definitely was not going to plan yesterday. During breakfast, they ran out of food and we had to wait long for our order. Then during lunch, the usual place where we had lunch don't serve buffet anymore. My poor Mum had to endure all that plus the screaming kids.

That did not stop the shopping spirit though. We shopped in the afternoon, then we hit the pasar malam in the late after noon. Since the boys went to sleep I went to the beach alone, then back for some more shopping at night. This time at a night market. The good news is good old ManYoo won at a canter at Middlesborough. We are all set to win the league now!

I went out early this morning to buy some breakfast. It was raining most of the night, but it is bright sunshine this morning. I finished sorting out the pics but due to bandwidth issue, I'll post it later when I reach KL.

PD - Day 2

Yes, having breakfast again. My usual holiday staple diet - nasi lemak, roti canai and teh tarik - yes, all three! The boys are restless since their sausages haven't arrived yet.

Slight change in plan yesterday. My Dad had to go back to Penang for business and my sister Julia is going to Melaka to visit her in-law for the weekend. So she dropped my mum in Seremban and she is enjoying my children's company.

As usual, we had fun looking for dinner. The beach are certainly filling up with visitors now. This is a bit more like it, but still it's not as jam-packed as usual. Restaurant business should be good, but instead most of them are closed. What ever left open were either full or well below par. We just had some nasi goreng, so everyone is looking forward for breakfast this morning.

The beach neae our apartment was also filled with campers. They were still partying well past midnight. I sat at the balcony enjoying the flashlight daNcing on the beach.

When I woke up this morning, the beach were already filled with bathers. There were also organised group activities - I think it was a school reunion of some sort. The banana boat were already out. Big party out there.

As for our plan, it's shopping day again, this time plus my mum. Still editing mY pics. Some of them were uploaded on my flicker account already. I had a problem logging into my website last night and had to update it via email.