Well, not surprisingly, I ran into some disputes with the admin people again after a while in district. Just like my days when I was in another district hospital. It seems pretty clear to me that the climate of false sense of superiority among the admins haven't changed a bit through the years. Rather disgusting I must say.
This admin doctor is one of the senior locals who chose not to specialise at all in anything. I guess she must have been quite contented with her senior status and true enough, her monthly pay at her current ranking in the ministry is no small business at all. Approaching a 5-figure number in the local currency. That's something that a lot of us (including the smarter ones) couldn't get in years to come!
This fella even left her husband with a congenital cardiac lesion at a pretty late stage before asking me to intervene! I quickly referred him for surgery and thank goodness the lesion was not irreversible even though he's at his 40's.
I thought we have a rather good relationship to start with but guess what...a worse package of repayment is kept in store for me!
An employer of a schizophrenic who had defaulted treatment called her to clarify the diagnosis. I was keeping the folder with me as I wanted to summarise the case for the department. To be frank, it was a rather challenging case as he had a good red-herring which could be deceptive even to the best A&E doctors!
One of my colleagues had referred him earlier on for pacemaker insertion for symptomatic bradycardia of 50/min! In retrospect, the 'syncope' was in fact due to the psychiatric manifestation (panic attack)! The recurrence of syncope in the face of functioning pacemaker made the diagnosis clear, and at the same time rendered the earlier assessment rubbish and resource-wasting. (The history of schizophrenia defaulted treatment was not elicited upon referral!).
The employer must have been a little bit harsh on her. She was panicky when she approached me for the folder. I said I would look for it and hand over to her by the same day. I reassure her not to worry too much.
She became quite agitated:"You know you shouldn't have take the folder out of hospital see. They ask..2 days already. Now angry to me...Want explanation you know" She said in a stammering tone and half-broken English.
Later I found the folder in the on call room and handed to her in the same afternoon. I even gave her a clear viewpoint of this case (knowing that it's quite clinically challenging). I thought the issue was over for me but then..
The next day, my HOD called me and told me that the hospital director had known about this and had complained to him.
I was rather amazed by this very fact! A few points to highlight here.
This admin doctor is one of the senior locals who chose not to specialise at all in anything. I guess she must have been quite contented with her senior status and true enough, her monthly pay at her current ranking in the ministry is no small business at all. Approaching a 5-figure number in the local currency. That's something that a lot of us (including the smarter ones) couldn't get in years to come!
This fella even left her husband with a congenital cardiac lesion at a pretty late stage before asking me to intervene! I quickly referred him for surgery and thank goodness the lesion was not irreversible even though he's at his 40's.
I thought we have a rather good relationship to start with but guess what...a worse package of repayment is kept in store for me!
An employer of a schizophrenic who had defaulted treatment called her to clarify the diagnosis. I was keeping the folder with me as I wanted to summarise the case for the department. To be frank, it was a rather challenging case as he had a good red-herring which could be deceptive even to the best A&E doctors!
One of my colleagues had referred him earlier on for pacemaker insertion for symptomatic bradycardia of 50/min! In retrospect, the 'syncope' was in fact due to the psychiatric manifestation (panic attack)! The recurrence of syncope in the face of functioning pacemaker made the diagnosis clear, and at the same time rendered the earlier assessment rubbish and resource-wasting. (The history of schizophrenia defaulted treatment was not elicited upon referral!).
The employer must have been a little bit harsh on her. She was panicky when she approached me for the folder. I said I would look for it and hand over to her by the same day. I reassure her not to worry too much.
She became quite agitated:"You know you shouldn't have take the folder out of hospital see. They ask..2 days already. Now angry to me...Want explanation you know" She said in a stammering tone and half-broken English.
Later I found the folder in the on call room and handed to her in the same afternoon. I even gave her a clear viewpoint of this case (knowing that it's quite clinically challenging). I thought the issue was over for me but then..
The next day, my HOD called me and told me that the hospital director had known about this and had complained to him.
I was rather amazed by this very fact! A few points to highlight here.
- A stranger called up the hospital looking for a clarification of a diagnosis of another patient. This clearly violates the principle of confidentiality! We can't even be sure whether the person over the phone was in fact the person that he's claiming as! If you'd told him everything over the phone, then I must say you must go back to med school to learn the basics.
- Obviously, when looking for clarification of diagnosis, the admin people would not be the best person to approach for. I wonder why this issue was not passed to any of the physicians in-charge (including me of course). Clinical questions should be answered by clinicians, and not administrators! Period!
- I helped her to locate the folder which was in the on call room. Lodging a complaint towards me is a counterintuitive measure, even for a 10-year-old. Unless, of course, her mental status was worse than a 10-year-old (which is, sad to say, quite a common ailment manifestation amongst the admin people in the ministry!)
- Lastly, I was quite disappointed that my HOD didn't even listen to my side of the story before telling me off. He thought that I gave him trouble by keeping the folder! I'd forgive him for one fact - that he might be a bit intimidated as he's employed under the ministry on a yearly contract basis. The plight of the contract doctors?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment