Last Day Of 2006

Time flies. It's the last day of 2006. Deja vu... I thought I said the same thing last year too! ;)

Covered A&E for the morning shift, as there are many people taking leave for the Xmas and New Year season. Well, my department is famous for being the "kind-hearted" one, and so if any dept needs relieving, the Pengarah knows who to contact! So much so that my own department is down with scarce of MOs, and yet we are still covering other department or districts. Can u imagine we also need to cover Bintulu Polyclinic? Just imagine spending hours of bus ride to Bintulu, and work at the polyclinic; whereas in actual fact, the Bintulu Hospital can just easily fork out 1-2 MOs from their side to cover, just minutes away from the PK? So, talk about efficiency in the govt service!

Well, enough of my ranting. It's the last day of 2006, I should be recollecting all the nice memories of this year long, and summarize them here... What have I achieved this year?
1. Passed my part One exam
2. Got married and had a nice honeymoon trip on cruise
3. Visited Taiwan during the CNY holiday
4. Bought a new house
5. Covered 3 districts (namely Daro twice, and Kapit once)
6. Helped out in the Old Folks' Home
7. Attended Paediatric Refresher Course
8. Fully sponsored trip to Sabah by a drug company (for cardiology update)
9. Bought a new PDA phone (iPaq rw6828)
10. Bought a new Dell over-killed desktop
11. And last but not least... my first Blog on April Fool's Day! :)

Many more, but I think this year is a really fruitful one. I cherish every moment throughout the year, and I think I am satisfied and happy with 2006! What about you guys then?

Rainy Season

It has been raining a lot lately, and the worst fear is that my laundry won't dry in time, and load after load coming its way; no more place to hang my clothes!

There is a very good mobile site for weather forecast -- Weather Underground. So far it has been pretty accurate for my place here in Sibu. I hardly find a weather site which includes Sibu; most of the time it will be the major cities in Malaysia, like KL, Penang, JB, Kuching and KK.

As we can see in the forecast, there will be rain everyday from now on... let's hope there won't be a flood here though!

My Next Dream Car

This will be my next dream car in list... :)
Seriously, I love Toyota cars!

Merry Christmas!

It's 25th Dec again.... Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! :)
Can I have a light saber this year as my Xmas present?

DongZhi

Today is DongZhi (冬 至), and it's raining heavily here in Sibu. According to the ancient belief, if it rains on DongZhi, there will be no rain during Chinese New Year! :) Looks like quite true for the past few years I observed.

According to Wikipedia, the traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms and DongZhi is 22nd solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 270° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 285°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 270°. In Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around December 21 (December 22 East Asia time) and ends around January 5.

In China, Dongzhi was originally celebrated as an end-of-harvest festival. Today, it is observed with a family reunion over the long night, when pink and white tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) are eaten in sweet broth to symbolise family unity and prosperity.

I am really craving for tangyuan... but it's hundred miles away from home. Mom, could you please courier the tangyuan to me? Any of you enjoying the tangyuan at the moment? Nowadays, there are many types of tangyuan with different flavours; I still prefer the traditional ones, pink and white, plain tangyuan cooked in sweetened juice! :)

Busy Day

Post call today... my brain could barely work properly. But Murphy Law always holds true in my department; when the rain was in the midst of flooding Johor, the workload was almost toppling all the MOs in my department today! To compound that further, one of our MOs had a bad accident yesterday while going home (raining day, slippery road, eyes ptosis), and so gotta take emergency leave to settle the police and insurance thingy (luckily he escaped unhurt, that's more relief!) And another MO down with very bad flu, but few days away from her wedding day (hence, the importance to be resting at home and minimize work stress! Need to be well prepared for the BIG day... so she takes emergency-cum-sick leave)...

And when you think it should be ok to have just adequate MOs to cover each ward, more premature babies will come out; with 4 in one morning, 3 of them intubated at birth for RDS. Then, there have to be another 2 duodenal atresia with one of them Down syndrome and severe polycythemia! Hell... one MO to do the venesection, while another one arranging for the Paed Surgeon to fly in for the op. Then another 2 severe pneumonia patients just have to arrive at the same time at A&E, and so another MO although not on call, gotta rush to intubate them at A&E.

You think that's all? Well, not quite... just at lunch time, another baby sent in from postnatal ward for exchange transfusion... but heck, no fresh whole blood! (rather common happening in this place) and so gotta reside to using packed cell and FFP.

Lunch at 4pm. Most of us nearly pengsan... including the specialists, even clerking the cases which continuously pouring in! Luckily I am happy to have such a non-calculative team, and the on call doctor is the luckiest today to have so many helpers to ease off her workload.

She promised each of us a kari-pap tomorrow! :) Shall see...

Are PDAs Overpriced?

I was reading the blog by Dr Chan ("Doc") about PDAs being overpriced nowadays, and that the question is "Is the PDA more useful than a laptop?"

I still think that as a doctor working in a hospital, PDA is still one thing which is indispensible. Can't live without, in other words. For me, at least, a laptop is not quite that essential, becoz whatever I need to do at home, I will use the PC desktop, then save the whatever files in my handy drive (mostly only Word doc, Powerpoint kinda files) to be used in hospital the next day.

As for a PDA-phone, I know it's expensive, so for those of us who can't afford one, I would recommend to get a basic handphone -- just for phone feature; and then to get a cheaper PDA (probably without WiFi) like Zire 72 or a second hand palm TX for its full PDA functions.

PDAs are very essential nowadays. There are so many things we can do with it. It used to be just a PIM diary; but now, it has grown to be a laptop replacement. With a wireless keyboard attached to it, like the ThinkOutside Bluetooth KB I have, my new PDA phone (the rw6828) has largely become my mini-laptop!

Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book

Came across this interesting article, although many of us are already practicing it, I still think it's nice to put it systematically in bullet form.

Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book

Books are a fantastic way to gain knowledge. With books, one can learn new techniques, gain new skills, and learn from role models who have been to where one wants to be and can show the way. There are many different ways to read books and just as many ways to remember their salient points. One of the most effective ways to get the most out of a book is to mark it up. There is no standard way to mark up a text, but below are a few ways that students have found effective in marking up a textbook so that one can see the important points quickly, make it more memorable, and make it easy to pick up years later and re-acquaint oneself with the major concepts.

What Not To Do

• Don’t use a highlighter – Quality marking isn’t done with a fat-tipped highlighter. You can’t write, which is an important part of marking the text, with a large marker. Get yourself some fine point colored pens to do the job.
• Don’t mark large volumes of text – You want important points to stand out. Although we all know that everything can’t be important, we often highlight all of the text on the page. You want to find the 20% of the text that is important (remember Pareto?) and mark that.
• Don’t take the time to mark up items that you read on a daily basis – (e.g., magazines, newspapers), unimportant or irrelevant items.
• Don’t mark the obvious – Don’t waste time marking up things that are already in your knowledge-base or skill set. If you already know it, you don’t need to mark it.

What To Do

• Mark the text with a pencil, pen, or, even better, colored fine-tipped pens – Remember, you are not highlighting, you are writing.
• Know your preferences – Some of you have an aversion to mark directly in the text. Books are precious things to many people and they want to protect them from damage and even the wear and tear of everyday use. If this describes you, grab some Post-It brand notes and do your marking and writing on them. This also gives you the advantage to move and reorganize them should you see fit. As for me, I like to mark directly on the page. I find that my books become more valuable to me when I add my contributions to the information that they contain.
• Underline the topic sentence in a passage – Remember, each paragraph has one topic sentence. The rest is supporting information and examples. Identify the topic sentence to find it easier.
• Use codes – Flag text with codes (e.g., Question marks to indicate disagreement, Exclamation marks to note agreement or to flag a strong statement, triangles to indicate a change in thinking, or a star for the topic sentence).
• Write the passage topic in the margin as a reminder – Just a word or two.
• Write questions in the margin – When you don’t understand something or when you don’t understand the author’s thought process on a particular topic, write the question in the margin as a reminder to settle the question.
• Circle new and unfamiliar words – Look them up as soon as possible.
• Add your or other author’s perspectives in the margins – Other authors have surely written on the same subject. What do they say? Do they agree with this author? If not, what do they say. Add these ideas in the margins.
• Add cross-reference notes to other works on the same topic – Use the author’s name and a shortened version of the other book’s title.
• Add structure to a narrative text – Use 1, 2, 3, 4…or an outline format I. A. B. C. 1, 2, 3, a, b, c…to add a structure that you understand.
• Draw arrows to related ideas – Or unrelated ideas…
• Summarize – Add your own summary after the last paragraph. That simple exercise will crystalize your thinking on the topic. If you can’t write it, you don’t understand it.

Extras

Post-It Brand Notes are great ways to also mark locations within books, much like bookmarks do. With Post-It Brand Notes, however, you can mark on them so you can see where you are turning before you start flipping through the pages. One can also use colored paper clips to identify pages or chapters that are important.

Free KFC Treat!

Christmas is near. KFC surprised my ward today with a free meal for everyone -- patients, patients' parents (coz it's Paeds ward!), nurses and not forgetting the doctors too!

Each of us got a 6-piece nuggets, and a cup of regular sized Milo Ais! Although by the time I received my share, the nuggets were already cold, and the Milo was already warm (ice melted!) -- should be the reverse though! ;) Nevertheless, I still enjoyed eating it together with my oncology patients! Nice moment!

Thanks, Colonel Sanders!

No Teh Tarik In Space

Felt better and more relieved after reading this piece of news update in the Star today:

No space for teh tarik

MOSCOW: There will be no teh tarik-making or roti canai-tossing experiments in space for our Angkasawan when he blasts off in October.

Instead, he will carry out at least 10 laboratory tests for serious research designed by 10 universities, institutes of higher education and government science agencies.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said the experiments were important as “they will have an important impact on our local food and medical industries”. ...more

I really hope that the multi-billion ringgit spent in this space project will bring progress and advantage to the nation. Frankly, I don't mind who the astronauts are, as long as they are chosen wisely and carefully under the stringent criteria. Well, hopefully it's another round of Malaysia Boleh! :)

Voluntary Service For The Old Folks

Today, it's me and my wife's turn to carry out the voluntary medical consultation at the Sibu Benevolent Society, for the old folks. This is a monthly basis voluntary service that my hospital is involved. There will be 2 doctors sent to the center every month, and will review all the old folks there. We mainly help them in medical problems, and to pick-up any new and acute illnesses, followed by necessary intervention/medications or referral to the hospital. Most of them are actually healthy generally and young at heart, but just for some reasons, they end up there. It's always nice to lend them your ears, once a month, and let them vent out all the stories, anger and frustrations... but of course, the saddest story is always about them being left there by their kids, who have grown up and moved to other places; totally forgotten about their aging parent(s)! Sigh, just can't imagine some of the human beings are so cold-blooded afterall!

Well, I look forward to going there again the next round, probably next year (rotational basis). Doing something good today -- Good Karma! :)

Another Convert!

Just realize that another colleague of mine (working in medical dept) finally bought a Palm TX for herself. Another convert, I say. Previously she was one of those who thinks that having a PDA is something useless and unnecessary. But now, look who's talking ..."Wow, having a PDA is really nice and make life easy!" That's what she said to me today!

Hmm... Having PDAs nowadays are not geeks anymore; this is exactly what was written here in PalmAddict today -- "We Are Not Geeks Anymore". Having said that, in my place of work, PDAs are still scarce, although there has been "improvement" for the past 3 years (more and more people are being "converted" to PDA geeks!). Now my role here is getting tougher, when it comes to the need to teach those newbies step-by-step to PDA usage. Probably I should conduct a half-day course in hospital seminar room, for every PDA newbies to grasp some basic in handheld knowledge. Cost is RM50 per person, how about that (better pay than doing a night's call)? ;)

Incompetent Public Health Service? Or Exaggerated Story?

Read this in LimKitSiang blog today:

This is Zara’s terrible story of an incompetent, unprofessional and even inhumane civil service:

On the 13th of December 2006, at approx 1.30pm a road
traffic accident involving a driver driving a dark
blue proton saga and a highway road sweeper of Malay
descent, male, approx mid 20s (the road accident
victim).

The location of the accident was about 150 – 200
meters from the Batu Tiga toll booth, elite highway in
the direction towards KLIA.

I chanced upon this accident which had just happened
while on my way back to work (Ampang via KESAS).

As I approached the accident site it seemed the victim
was already dead, the driver who had knocked him down
was standing near-by and nobody dared approach to lend
assistance to the victim, almost as if this was one
time were an invasion of privacy was taboo.

I stopped my vehicle and approached, upon examining
the accident victim I found him to be still alive but
heavily concussed, his pupils were completely dilated.

Suddenly the victim grabbed my hand and tried with all
his might to raise himself to his feet. I tried to
calm him and asked by-standers if an ambulance had
been called. I was told it had not.

In a firm tone I told the driver of the car that hit
the victim to call for an ambulance. He dialed 999, it
rang until it could not ring anymore. He rang again,
again it was not answered, he rang again and passed
the phone to me. Finally someone answered (a man).

I informed him that I am reporting an accident a few
hundred meters away from the Batu Tiga Toll in the
direction of KLIA. He asked me my phone number and my
name and which hospital was nearest. I gave the info
and added that the nearest hospital to deal with this
kind of trauma is probably Klang.

At 1.57pm I received a call from 03 3371 7989 the
ambulance control center at Klang Hospital. The guy in
charge of the control center asked to speak to me and
asked for the location of the accident, which I gave
adding that the victim was dying and that this was an
extreme emergency.

The guy manning the control center did not know my
location, so I repeated it clearly and concisely. It
seemed that he needed to understand it for himself
otherwise he could not pass on the information and
dispatch the ambulance. It was a frustrating
conversation. I repeated the details of my location
and he asked me if I was sure that Klang was the
nearest hospital. I repeated firmly, yes!

I told him the injuries of the victim hoping he would
feel the urgency, instead he wanted to know whether
“dia jatuh motor ke…?” I told him politely that his
question is completely irrelevant and hurry up with
the ambulance plus I have to hang up and attend to the
victim.

I called back at 2.06pm to ask if an ambulance had
been dispatched. The same guy told me “belum”. He
asked me the same questions…I answered them.

I warned him that the next time I make a call will be
to the Menteri Besar’s office to complain about his
shoddy professionalism, so he’d better send out that
ambulance immediately. I called Salamat Dollah at
2.08pm and he helped call Klang Hospital on my behalf
to request they send out an ambulance immediately.

I waited and called the emergency control center at
Klang Hospital at 2.36pm and asked the same guy if an
ambulance had been dispatched, same answer, “belum”.

He requested me to repeat the accident location again
which I did. This time I told him that he need not
understand it just write it down and give it to the
ambulance driver along with my hp number.

I waited again. The victim was rolling in pain on the
road, his head had a gash about 10cm long on the back
of his head, the skin on his head was beginning to
peel off. His left leg was completely broken and
hanging by the flesh but the main artery was not
severed, he was not loosing much blood. His workmate
was cradling him in his arms and asking him to
mengucap kalimah syahadah.

I tried to stop further damage to his left leg by
securing it to his right leg. I told the few people
around that he is going to die if we don’t get him to
hospital. Everyone was reluctant to put him in there
car, all kinds of excuses… ada barang, kotor la,
berdarah la… Meanwhile the victim was grabbing on to
my clothes and body in pain, unable to talk possibly
due to his head injury.

Finally the driver who knocked him down allowed us to
use his car to send the victim to the hospital. But he
was too shaken-up to drive. Another gentleman offered
to drive but did not know how to exit the Elite
highway to get towards Klang Hospital. I asked him to
follow me and so we drove off as fast as we could head
towards USJ - Federal Highway – Klang. We had to go
through so many toll gates, some paying, some after
explaining briefly, let us through.

On the Federal Highway despite our attempts to notify
motorist that we were in a state of emergency many
blocked our path and only relented to give way when I
practically sat on my car horn.

We arrived in Klang and I called the emergency control
center guy for directions to the hospital. I was by
this time quite distressed and pronounced the name of
the hospital wrongly. The guy in the control center
told me there was no such hospital in Klang, so I said
to him. “Have you sent out an ambulance to the Batu
Tiga toll accident site ? No, right? So since you
cannot understand were the accident is we are sending
the victim to you. This is an emergency can you give
me directions to your hospital or not??”

Finally he did.

When we arrived at Klang Hospital I had a hard time
looking for the staff to bring a trolley to remove the
victim from the car. I asked for assistance from two
nurses but did not receive a response. I took a
trolley and pushed it to the car, suddenly a hospital
aide appeared, then another, as we tried to remove the
victims body from the car, it was then that the
co-worker who had been cradling the victim in the car
said that he has stopped breathing.

The hospital aides rushed the victim into the A&E room
and I followed, as he was wheeled in there was no
immediate response from the doctors, it was obvious
this young man with his whole life ahead of him had
died in the car on the way to the hospital.

I was so angry, my words were simple –
“Kecuaian pihak hospital menghantar ambulance membantu
mangsa ini telah mengecewakan rakyat.”

The aide asked me to be calm. How could any human
being be calm when face with such stupidity and total
lack of regard for human life? The aide showed me the
IC and asked me to confirm if this was the victim. I
confirmed. I briefly saw the name Mohd Yusry and his
age was somewhere in his mid- twenties.

As I walked away from the A&E room in disgust I saw
the control center. A guy was sitting in it with a
female nurse looking at a computer (very close and
comfy).

I approached him and asked if he was the person who
took my calls, he knew my name and I asked him for
his, he declined. I asked him why he did not dispatch
an ambulance to which he replied something brash.

I asked him if he was happy as the victim was
unnecessarily dead and that I am going to ensure that
his lackadaisical attitude to his job was brought to
the public attention. I asked him for his name again
along with the nurse who was sitting next to him
“playing” with the computer. He refused to give it to
me. Feeling very frustrated I called Salamat Dollah
and informed him that regretfully the road accident
victim a young Malay man had died in the car on the
way to the hospital and that no ambulance had been
dispatched.

This is not the first time I have called for an
ambulance and used the 999 services. Every time I have
called for an ambulance it has never arrived, never.
Why??

This is the first road accident victim I have helped
who has actually died. Everyone else I have helped
before this has survived.

THE ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED ARE:

1) The strategic location of a free government
hospital able to deal with serious road accident
trauma in Shah Alam (densly populated area with much
traffic activity).

and/or

1.1) Emergency response centers created where the
Balai Bomba have special ambulances and police squad
cars for dispatching purposes only to accident /
incident locations and to the nearest hospital / balai
police (ambulances need NOT be parked permanently at
hospitals).

2) Road signs giving clear and proper directions to
hospitals (there are hardly any such signs).

3) Special Emergency Exits through toll gates. And
signs declaring their existence + a phone number to
call ahead so that they can be opened.

4) The name of the Highways, Elite, Kesas, Federal etc
clearly advertised so that road users are able to
identify their location under emergency circumstances.

5) Professionally trained personnel with various
languages who have true empathy and value the human
life, manning emergency response centers. Who
consistently answer calls on the first or second ring.

6) An emergency station located at the emergency
parking lot with a big sign above it (similar to the
car jockey service at hotels) to receive patients.
That is manned 24 hours a day, never ever left
unattended.

7) An ISO reponse time from the time you send out an
sos call to 999 you will receive the assistance you
need within 15 min.

These are my simple suggestions. Life is precious and
should be preserved above all else. Without regard for
one another what kind of country are we leaving for
our children to inherit ??

Is this yet-another-incompetent-govt-service highlighted in the media? Or is this just an exaggerated story?

I personally think that there should be two sides of the stories heard, and a thorough investigations done to reveal the truth; if there is negligence in the A&E service, by all means, sack that "dungu" receptionist! However, if this is not the truth, I wish the media will clarify this to the public, and that the businesswoman Zara should apologize to all of us -- this indirectly reflect how bad the public hospital service is, and since I am one of the KKM employees, I am indirectly affected too.

I need to know the real truth, all truth and nothing but the truth...

My New 6828

Hoo-ray! Just received my long awaited iPaq rw6828, replacing my O2 mini. Since my brother got it at a cheaper price (thanks to HP's CAP pricing), and therefore I only paid RM1888 for this brand new unit. So far tested out for one day, and I must admit that the iPaq is much better than the O2 mini. Whether be it the built, the aesthetic look, the speed, the screen or the weight! Everything iPaq wins hands-down!

I bought a anti-glare screen protector from Brando, and it is really working as advertised! Thanks Brando. And I got myself a 2GB Apacer Mini SD from Lelong, and so far it is fast and stable.

Well, let's have a quick look at the pros and cons of this rw6828.

Pros:
1. Light weight
2. Gorgeous screen!
3. Nice plastic screen cover
4. Classy
5. Speedy
6. Stable
7. No issue on stylus drift
8. ROM upgrade is easy
9. Speakers in front (hence, louder and stereo effect)
10. Good and fast WiFi connection
11. It's an iPaq!

Cons:
1. Plastic-feeling (compared to O2 mini)
2. Camera is awfully slow!
3. Mini-SD slot (why can't they just make a normal SDIo slot?)
4. Slightly thicker compared to O2 mini
5. So-so battery life...
6. Ringtone is soft!
7. Need to remove stylus first, before opening up the plastic screen cover (otherwise it will block the way of the stylus silo)
8. Not fully compatible with my iTech Clip II Mini bluetooth headset --> Correction: Its FULLY compatible with my iTech Clip II Mini!

Well, but overall, if I rated the O2 mini 4 out of 5; this babe I'll give her a 4.9 out of 5! :)
No regret having it!! Love it.

Spam Mail

Saw this news in the Malay Mail's headline yesterday:

"Cheap prescription drugs on-line - BAD MEDICINE"

And I am pretty shocked to know that there are actually people who purchase pills like Viagra or other so-called-health-products over the internet! I always think that people will just swear or curse whenever they see such spam mails in their mailbox, and the next action will be deleting all of them. I have never opened up any of the spam mails or mails from people whom I don't know, in fear of getting unnecessary viruses into my PC. And furthermore, I think it's a waste of time looking at those spams -- I seriously think these people who spam, should get on with a more meaningful life, as life is short and precious; seize the day, and make it an extraordinary one.

Another Myth...

After blogging about Human vs Cow, here is another myth greatly affecting majority of the Chinese population here. They think there is a NEED to feed all newborns with plain water (sky juice) -- preferably alternating with each milk feeding; for they fear that if they don't give them plain water, and just give them solely milk, the babies will get dehydrated and become heaty! Then the consequences will be constipation, followed by abdominal distension, vomit, poor oral intake, jaundice blah blah blah.... A long list of complications!

It's pretty hard to convince those young mothers to just give milk and no other plain water -- even the young mothers are convinced to do so, there is always a great force behind her to go against all these "western" advice -- the infamous Mother-In-Law!! So far i have encountered many young mothers, especially Chinese, have difficulties and in great dilemma because they are sandwiched between their personal thoughts, and that of their MIL's!

I even encounter jaundiced babies with serum bilirubin as high as 19mg/dL at day 3, but refused to get the babies admitted -- because the MILs have some "traditional herbs" to cure that "disease"! They refuse phototherapy, because they think that when babies cry a lot in under the photoRx, it is heartbreaking; if they bring the babies out of it, they get scolded by the nurses... So when some of them, according to my consultant with >15 yrs experience, end up in the cerebral palsy clinic, they beg the doctors to do their best.

The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons cartoon series -- one of my all-time favourite, especially when I was still studying in Ireland. Even skipped revision one day before major exam, but just couldn't miss a single episode of Simpsons! Next year the Simpsons will be in the theatre... and I really hope it will be a great one! :)

Human vs Cow

After a few years working in this hospital, I realize an interesting fact about breastfeeding and bottle feeding...

Chinese : 9/10 bottle feed (cow's milk)
Ibans: 9/10 breastfeed

My consultant always advice the mothers: Cow drinks cow milk, human drinks human milk.
So if this is the case, with my observation here... who's the cow? ;) (just kidding though!)

Many people here are over-influenced by the milk advertisement about how early introduction of DHA, AHA, extra calcium etc... can help the growing child in every way. I know they want the best for their babies, but I think they get the whole concept wrong!

Breastmilk is still the best for your babies.

Microsoft FireFox!

Came across this humourous site and I think it's the best joke of the year! ;)

I wonder if Bill Gates will finally reach this stage!

Microsoft FireFox

I have not been using IE ever since I found FireFox...

Housemen Not Allowed To Do Discharge Summary

Recently my hospital has come out with a circular, stating that with effect from 15 Nov, all house officers are NOT allowed to sign any discharge summary for hospital in-patients. All discharge certs must be signed by ONLY medical officers of the respective wards! The reason given by the hospital director is that there are many medico-legal implication if housemen are allowed to write and sign the discharge certs.

So nowadays, in my hospital, at least in my wards, house officers are pretty lepak. Major procedures (like chest tubes, femoral lines, peritoneal dialysis, or even inserting CBD for neonates) are all done by MOs; referral cases from district or more difficult cases (like HUS, ARF, mixed AGN-Nephrotic etc.) are clerked by MOs; setting IV lines by MOs (if the nurses tried hard and still can't get it); setting long lines for TPN by MOs; preparing TPN by MOs; ward rounds, if the HOs are slow to finish, again will be reviewed and cleared up by MOs; clinics run by MOs (no HO in clinic!); chemo drug preparation by MOs; if HOs shortage, no EOD calls allowed for HOs, and so the MOs gotta do HO calls.... And now, even discharge certs must be by MOs!!!

Well, for those final year med students graduating next year, you can really really consider my hospital for housemanship posting! Good for you -- easy money, and easy life; unlike working in HKL or JB! ;)

Seriously, think about it!

Addendum: Now my HOD decides that all HOs can write the discharge certs, and sign them; but still need MOs to countersign -- responsibility still on MOs, should it turns up to be a medicolegal case later! Hmm...

Online Video Tutorial "How To Use a PDA"

Discovered this link at doctorsgadget.com which has a very nicely done Online Video Tutorials for newbies in medical (or even applicable to non-medical people) field, on "how to use the PDA" in daily work. They feature on the use of "Diary", "Task List", "Notes" etc in daily medical rounds. And best of all, they compare both Palm and PPC platforms side by side. So for those newbies who are still wondering which platform to go for, do take a look at how the two platforms work -- you might finally decide to choose from one of the platforms after looking at the video tutorials.

iTech Clip II Mini

Bought the iTech Mini bluetooth headset few days ago, and so far very satisfied with it.

Pros:
1. Light weight and small form factor
2. Cool looking when putting this on!
3. Ear piece fits nicely, and the rubberized edge gives extra grip when put on
4. Adjustable volume -- pretty decent sound quality

Cons:
1. Expensive (compare to non-bluetooth, normal wired headset!)
2. Wire not retractible (so it will dangle around... not so nice)
3. Delay in connecting calls (about 3-5 seconds after u press the button at the ear piece before connection established)

But overall, I would rate this headset 4 out of 5 stars! :)