To Ministry With Love

Of late, I have reason to believe that this blog has been perused by the Ministry people. A close friend of mine had told me. To be honest, I am very pleased by this fact, as one of my intention of writing this blog is to get some attention from the ruling party ie the Ministry policy makers.

I told my friend that the primary aim of this blog is indeed to tell the relevant people the various interesting events happening in a hospital, whether too smart or too lame..

More importantly, I was also 'warned' not to write on issues criticizing the system again. Frankly, I wasn't surprised at all. This system has always been one with people yelling high speeches of democracy, freedom and human rights on the outside, but in reality, a lot of things we are expected to keep quiet and cease public discussions.

The people in support of this would say that it's for the greater good. Hmm.. sounds familiar isn't it, and how about some addition of words to the sentence that goes like this: 'For the greater good so that we could maintain the state of peace, harmony and prosperity!'

Sweet deal and a real music to the ears! While I am totally a peaceful person, nonetheless, I think keeping quiet all the time and taking no heed on the reality is not something that we should be endorsing in the long run.

I think the Ministry is able to do better than this. Some helpful voices from the inside and some sincere comments from the outside would be good.

I have come across very high-ranking officers in the Ministry who is much willing to accept critics and views. If one who is at a higher post is willing to accept, why shouldn't his subordinates?

That is absolutely a useless attribute to hum and sing 'I wanna know the truth' day in and day out, but in reality stays contented with a world full of lies and illusions. Someone is already on the verge of getting his final paycheck. Would you be the next?

A New Wave Of Change

The recent nationwide general election results took us by a surprise. Nothing medical here. At least not directly related. But I must admit that everything and anything is essentially connected, in some ways, to politics in this modern civilisation.

Rather often, we clinicians do find ourselves in a tight spot to fulfill some special 'uninvited' demands from the local politicians. Some might not be the politicians themselves, but they were their friends, neighbours, relatives etc.

Queue-jumping, requests for early consultation, early appointments, special attention, demand for the 'best' medicine available... these were invariably some but not all the things that were happening over the years that I've been serving in the ministry.

Worst still, when I was serving in one of the smaller district hospital years ago, I was repeatedly confronted by outpatients who claimed to be the close friends or neighbours of our Prime Minister!

"Best medicine for me, I'm his close friend." This statement was utterly too familiar to hear.

"Don't worry sir, I am already giving you the best." Admittedly, not much of a choice, I need to use a rather 'political' statement as well. Interesting, isn't it?

I do hope that this new wave of change be served as a humble awakening to all, not just the local politicians, but also the people who endorsed them.