start of bad call....

 There call was bad lately – patient came in 20 minutes interval. I did not have a good rest but still able to survive the call. With Only 2 day shifts this month, my life is considered good. Even though there is a cut of working hour, I still get a plus on my pay slip after the increment.

However sometimes, I really feel that the health insurance is so cheap. With RM25, one can come to the ED and request for a specialist consultation compare to RM 60-100 in Malaysia.

In every 3 calls, I would meet have some drunkard sent to ED by the local rescue service just because someone saw him laying along the roadside and reported it to the rescue service or local police department. Those were merely enjoying a good nap along the road side after his enjoyed his drinks. But there was one guy who is the WOW (worst of the worst ) guy. He had once summoned the ambulance for generalized discomfort and later walked off straight from the ED and enjoyed his noodle soup opposite our hospital.

But sometimes you can also see irresponsible parents who brought their child to ED just because they felt their child is having a fever with their hand only – half of the time it was a false alarm.

Minus this reckless and irresponsible, I could have slept better.

My family was lucky as I treat my children instead of sending them to some ENT surgeon for pediatric consultation… Save a lot of time on waiting….

I wandered I would ever get away from this ED life….

radiation..

the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan had caused a little chaos around the world…indeed, peoples are so darn concerned about radiation – something so horrible and yet it can’t be seen…

as the level 2 hospital covering for the nuclear plant down south. We have to set up a drill annually. A scenario was set and a few experts would come down to us and oversee the process. A post mortem meeting and we learnt from it every year. However the maximum casualties we get is 2… I hate the drill – wearing the suit is an agony – most of the drills are held during the summer and the sweat was so terrible…

I had read a lot during the past 2 drills as I acted as the ED doctor instead of joining the de-radiation team….

Nothing to shout about as the level detectable was so low….it is all about odds and the choice of GOD....

Patient and families started to ask about radiation dose for CT and it was easier to talk them out of it…

Indeed the nuclear power plant is more eco than the traditional power plant however when disaster strike, nothing is safe…but what can we do? The only thing is to save more energy , to give up a more comfortable life, but I think it is worth everything, the obstacle is to convinced everyone to lead a modest life instead of a comfortable one(air con…..)

Back to my farming dream – I am seriously considering buying a agricultural land , but to do so in Taiwan, I have to give up my citizenship….a real struggle….

Settle...a new start

It is my first call of the month…the feeling is quite different today though…. It is a start of the new working agreement…

My title had officially changed to attending physician of emergency department( my previous title was attending physician (internal medicine). That means no matter what happen, I would be fixed to the ED….

I settle with a salary of a semi detach double storey house in Klang….well, It should be the highest salary I could get ever….

Working time should be same or less than what I am experiencing now…I could spent more time with the kids and Ving… the next task would be save whatever I could and prepare for the future….

My colleague told me that one of our ex-surgeon had brought a ED doctor(later I looked up the registry, he is an orthopedic surgeon working in a hospital about 60 km away…I think he is trying to change track…)  come to our ED and ask around…In the past, I would have a bad feeling about this – shuffling time again…but not this time….I am more secure with the new agreement…

I got a 10 k rm increment since mid of last year, a real miracle in this field…. a GRACE and I praise the LORD for what He had given me….

no where

I was summoned by the dept supt of admin 4 days ago and we had talk about my job review…

She had prepared a memo, comparing my paid per hour with Lem. It revealed that the different was 100+ different. I got paid more than Lem. I told her that it is truly unfair as Lem only day shift and he got 4 week end off and I work mostly night shift and I had to cover for 2 weekend.

Truly unacceptable… She then told me that the pay of board certified ED physician had risen to a sky high level as someone had manipulated it. I told her that is true but that is the market price. I told her if the hospital think my pay is a fair price compare to the market, then the hospital would easily hired a handful of people like me…I said I would gladly place my resignation if the hospital could hire someone with the price they paying me…

I told her during the 1^st negotiation, I had told the management that if they agreed with the figure I requested. I would not care whatever they pay others in the future. However they had bargained a 15% less figure and told me that revision would be done if any new ED physician is recruited. The dep. Supt asked me if I would accept the previous figure, I told her “definitely not”… I had waited and I request a fair wages….

The discussion ended up no where as she could not make any decision… further discussion to be done next week....

not prepared...

 

The quake and tsunami of Japan had truly shattered the world….The ED staff had a small discussion on it…It is not the quake that frightened us, it was the nuclear reactor crisis. We had always been the 2^nd level rescue hospital however the equipment and training we had is far away to manage a true disaster. What we had gone true focus on managing 2 patients – yes, 2 patients at a time. We were always allocated with 2 patients…we had never given the scenario with a massive suspected contamination. Even though the no 3 plant is 60km away, but we never prepare for a true disaster. We had drilled to duel with incident only.

Everything we had are merely on the paper…there was this massive food poisoning incident happened in KH county(now part of the KH metropolitan), the responsible hospital where the famous KXXMH and the handling was bombarded severely during the post mortem…

The final conclusion is we are not prepared…..

Some columnist had commented vigorously on the subject but most of the them were only partially right – still, everything is think and then said, no where better than a paper drill….

The hospital had not discussed it as the area is relatively safe from any immerse disaster. But there was this report that caught my attention.

The manila trench is currently a real threat to the southern part of Taiwan. If there is any earth quake occurred in that region, there would only be minutes before the tsunami would hit the southern part of Taiwan. The place I stay is relatively safe – 10+km from the nearest coast line. The Japan Tsunami wave had stormed 6km into the inland. However the hospital I worked in is just along the beach….

Hopefully the hospital building is strong enough to survive the wave…

UXO

UXO , aka - UneXploded Ordnance

It was a queer period in the past…. Boss seldom talk to me nor discuss with me...I presumed it was due to the shift….

A discussion was done today... I dropped the BOMB...

 

 He was not surprise when I told him that I wanted an a review for my salary and shift…

I told him I had been 3x tumor terror( the latest one was a mass over rt parotid area…)… I was lucky that I slipped through…

I told boss that I am willing to have a cut on working hour if we could get another ED man to come in. I would “tie up” my working hour with Lem – both of us would work only 360 hrs (so 360- his working hour would be mine). In such case, the rest of 360 ED hour would be shared by the rest of the 2 ED guy.

Boss had told me that recently they had approached a doctor but did not successfully recruited him… I could understand the reason – most of the shift offered was night shift – (a usual ED man work 7d8n or 8d7n per months), but with Lem on most of the day shift, we had only 8-10 days shift to split among the rest of us… The other reasons was the working hour – with lem working 220+, there would be only 140 to be allocated to the new comer.

My suggestion help boss sought out this 2 issue as I told boss that I am willing to do all night shift with a working hours of 140 only. BUT I want an adjustment…

I told boss I got paid 30% less and it is unacceptable as the most of the hospital difference was only 10-15% less.

Boss mumbled a little bit about the current situation…he had hinted me that there is problem with the shift at the moment and I told him in a polite way that I need some weekend as I need to go the church and currently I am getting 4 solid days off only…

He told me that he would get back to me later on…

I knew his strategic and he would definitely try to talk me into sharing all the weekend with K.

I would not walk into the trap, my last move would be resign…

The hospital is in no situation to loss any one further as 2 doctor would be leaving by the mid of May. The hospital was unable to get anyone new coming in. The radiologist from centre of Taiwan had rejected the offer after some friendly dinner and lunch meet….

 I am not trying to push the limit of the management and squeeze whatever I could. I seek only fairness and a cut off working hour.

If the negotiation comes to a good end , I would be getting another 15% raise or a cut of working hour by 30%...either both I gain. But I am prepared if the LORD is sending me on a training path earlier that it should be…. I had to wait and be patience….

 

Wild goose chase...

I  had submitted the application of my foreign driving license conversion(non-automatic) to the JPJ at Putrajaya about 30 days ago… a dreadful wait for me...as far as I knew no one had ever been rejected, but still, the waiting was real pain.

I finally decided to called up the JPJ office yesterday morning. An friendly officer took up the phone and she told me that my approval letter was sent the day before.

I called up my brother in law and he told me he had just received the letter and heis going to the local JPJ office to summit the application…

Well, I got a call from him hour later and he told me that everything had been settled but I would need to supply him with a passport size photo for the international driving license. AND the cost was RM 150….PERRRR YEARRRRR…

I logged on to the JPJ website and saw this page that really make me tears...

Well, I look up the Taiwan transport department and found that the International driving license of Taiwan is only RM25 and valid to the date of current driving license…and anyone (including foreigner) with a Taiwan driving license is eligible…

What the HXXK…  a wild goose chase for me, but at least I got back my Malaysia driving license…….