Hospital, hospital, hospital!!

Hospital, hospital, hospital!!

Recently received an email from one of the readers of this blog asking me to write something about myself.

I also received another email from UK asking me to update this blog more frequently if possible. OK, OK......., certainly many doctors in a Malaysian public hospital will share with me the same feeling that while serving in a government hospital in Malaysia, you are mentally and physically prepared to be underpaid and overwork!

Today, there are 44 patients in my ward and three of them are critically ill. You can expect that you will never get enough ICU beds in hospital because there are simply too many patients in this country and too few beds!! I am running up and down of my ward and calling up other wards to beg for extra beds for my overflow patients.

We do not have enough beds not because we do not have enough hospitals but simply that our people just cannot afford to pay to go to private hospitals. There are more than 6 BIG private hospitals in Penang but these hospitals for the RICH only and of course, for those who have a medical card.

I do not know what the policy makers are having in their minds in this country. I anticipate that our country is going to be broke soon if we continue to practise subsidized healthcare system.

What I can see everyday in my hospital is our people are getting poorer and poorer although you may be bombared by news that our economy is great and we have produced the every first muslim astronaut in the World.

We need changes in our healthcare system. We have to make our healthcare more affordable for everyone and people can assess the healthcare system easily. No point if you say that we have the cheapest healthcare system in this World when large number of patients are clamped in a congested ward with limited numbers of staff nurses and doctors.

If we overwork and underpaid, we are providing sub-optimal care to our patients. And you can't expect our people to have first world mentality when they are getting third world salary!!