Housemen at mercy of doctors

THE first generation of contract housemen are forced to begin their duties in a totally uncharted area, grey at best.

The biggest problem we face in the current system is the lack of a clear policy which has resulted in doctors using fear tactics against their own kind.

Junior doctors are told that under the current system, their contracts can be terminated at any time.

Clinicians can, and almost always are, moody and will ruin one’s long-term placement just because of a single bad impression.

An authority in a local government hospital has, for example, been saying that all unused leave during housemanship can be accumulated and used by the end of the training.

When queried later, the response was: “Leave is a privilege, not a right.”

Apart from being treated like second-class citizens, there is currently no circular or formal document for housmen to point to and say: “Stop all this nonsense.”

If there was a clear policy, threats and bad practices can immediately be detected and referred to the written guidelines which at this moment is practically non-existent.

I hope the next generation of contract housemen in government hospitals will be spared from what the first generation has had to endure.

FIRST GENERATION CONTRACT HOUSEMAN Kuala Lumpur