There is joy in the medical profession

I AGREE with Dr K.H. Sng’s view, “Once noble, now miserable” (The Star, Dec 14), that in this day and age, it is very challenging to be a doctor.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Despite heavier patient expectations, many surveys continue to show that doctors remain the most trusted professionals in society. With the proliferation of demanding patients and relatives, fuelled by the Internet and social media, the art of medicine has come to the fore, and patients and their relatives have to be educated, convinced and directed back to the logic and science of medical diagnosis and treatment.

Medicine remains a very interesting profession because no two patients are alike. For those who are academically inclined, the field of medicine is their oyster.

As a doctor who has been through a legal suit, I have been scarred and robbed of some of the joys of medicine even though the case was eventually dropped. But I have gained wisdom in the areas of informed consent, patient autonomy and documentation.

Having worked for seven years in the British National Health Service (NHS) where all posts are contract jobs from day one of housemanship, I did not expect the furore elicited when the Health Ministry introduced contract posts for doctors in Malaysia.

Under the NHS, one should be able to get a job if one is not choosy about locality. This should be the situation with proper manpower planning and cases of housemen having to wait nine months to a year before placement will become a thing of the past.

Another bane of the medical profession are insurance companies, Health Maintenance Organisations (HMO) or Managed Care Organisations (MCO) which have driven a wedge in the patientdoctor relationship. I personally try to shut them out when it comes to making treatment decisions so that my conscience is clear.

Black sheep aside, contrary to the portrayal by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) that doctors are tax dodgers, we are actually noble lawabiding citizens. This is why IRB finds us “easy meat” when it comes to inland revenue collection.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to whether one views medicine as a calling and strives for excellence with pride and dedication for the profession or merely as a job to earn a living. For those contemplating medicine as a career, if the latter is the case, then please choose another profession. AN IDEALIST Melaka