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Gripes

Just came back from Health minister's talk. Glad I went. He talked about certain things which set me thinking. How our future would be like..how it's unnecessary and rather infantile to be worrying about losing patients..how absurd it is of healthcare groups to be fighting tooth and nail when they obviously failed to see that there's a bigger pie awaiting them elsewhere.

You can say he's much more patient-centred than previous health ministers. In an ideal system, the patient comes first. In this context, the patient is the consumer, and healthcare staff are service providers. And in such an ideal system, for the patient to benefit fully, costs should be lowered by increasing the supply of doctors, nurses, etc.. they should have more players in the market to promote competition and further drive down costs and increase quality..he's doing this by fetching in foreign doctors.

While all this is good news for the patient, some doctors are worried about the competition, from their own colleagues (the supply is constantly increasing) and from imported doctors. Well, what the minister said is that there's no reason to be afraid, cos the 'market' is actually much bigger than people think. As long as you're good, people will come looking for you.

I think that's a wise statement. And the person who drummed this notion into me was perhaps my primary school teacher. In her words, "If you're good, people will grab you." If you're skilful and, erm, simply put, good, people will naturally flock to you. Just look at the nuh paeds department.. how many indons come specially just to see prof q or a y. And it's not like they publicise themselves. Those who complain the most, who are afraid of competition are probably those who know they can't survive any competition.

That being said, I can't help but worry too. For students like us, our concerns are in relation to the immediate future. First more foreign doctors are being imported, next the list of accepted overseas medical schools is expanded, then the local medical school intake will be increased and an aust sch is setting up an undergrad med school here i think. By the time we enter the profession, it will be quite saturated. I'll have to work my ass off for a few years to clear the astronomical debt, and realistically speaking, how 'good' can you become in only a few years. I can foresee myself earning just enough. Not too little, not excessive. So, I think our concerns are not unwarranted. Haha.. and I think I can't survive any competition cos I'm no good. (I don't kill anyone I happy le..)

There's another thing. If the local med sch intake had been any smaller, I wouldn't have gotten in. So..rightly...it would be selfish of me to begrudge any move to increase the supply of doctors.

I think bottomline is.. you can't avoid competition, and it's selfish to want the ministry to stamp any kind of competition to protect your own interests.. but you can try to be first-rate to stay ahead. Easier said than done.

Ah. It's annoying to see some people *rolls eyes* who are perennially competitive. He is. *shrugs* I mean, they seriously have some big problem. Whatever.

I'm doing my eye posting now. Not getting a lot of interaction from the doctors in the clinic. They give the same reason every time.. too busy, too many patients today, no time to explain. But..when has the patient load been small.. and when will a doctor not be busy. They have to take time to teach students, simple as that. If nobody takes time or effort to teach students, students won't be taught. Problem is.. doctors don't set aside extra time for teaching. Bad.. cos its not in their psyche.

posted by Alvin @ 10:55 PM |