Justice

Blame it on the brewed coffee. Yep! It did help me digest that feast i had tonight but it's not just helping me find a good night sleep. Kept on turning in my bed finding for the right position that will put me to slumber. Sleeping is not a problem for a narcoleptic like me but not tonight. I am not sure if it was just the coffee that's keeping me awake or the news that a previous intern of mine told me tonight.

She wasnt comfortable with the new hospital that she's rotating in. Call it the Other Side Medical Center. With the said name it has a subliminal meaning that it's opposite our side. In whatever aspect, it's just our opposite. It has been considered as the pillar of the medical practice here in town. Obviously for being the largest, both in area and the number of its medical staff, and for being the most modern private hospital in town. It too is almost equivalent to the center of our college of physicians since most of its members originated and are practicing here.

About the news, she was just surprised to discover that her residents, who pardon my word are trained too to develop superiority complex, arent examining their patients at the Emergency Room! Hearing this was actually no longer a surprise for me. A few weeks ago, a colleague in the hospital where i worked complained that she brought her brother who was having an asthma attack in that medical center. She was surprised that the resident at the ER has a complete history and physical examination of her brother when in fact she havent examined the patient yet. Im thinking that maybe their clinical eye is well trained that they could already hear their patient's lungs just by mere observation.

Here's the gist of this blog now. I can hear myself shouting for an injustice. As a senior resident, i have been witness and have been a victim myself on how unfairly we were treated. Not because we came from a crap hospital, we too are crap ourselves. We have experienced those unfair treatments from our colleagues from the Other Side, from the media and from the patients themselves. We are working in a dilapidated and outdated government hospital but hey, our values, our knowledge and skills arent that dilapidated and outdated. What can we do however? This hospital where we work already built an impression if not to most, to some.

People have been thinking that our hospital is the place where the patients go and die. Heck! How can they not die here when we receive them at their worst and worst of all, we receive them with nothing in them but sickness? How can we manage them properly when we cant even apply what's ideal to them? How can we not apply what's ideal when the resources we have are scarce and so are their families'. In short, patients die here because they are meant to die. We are just fortunate enough to be chosen to pronounce their demise.

Why cant people count the number of patients that we have treated and were able to sent home well? Why cant people see the number of patients who comes back at the out-patient department for follow ups and who appears too different from the time they were admitted? Patients who looked like people from the land of famine with tubes stucked in their chest when they were admitted, now walking in the OPD fully made up from head to toe. They might even be mistaken as patient's folks.

We are always bombarded by issues of failing to attend to our patient's needs. Issues that we lousily dispense and manage patients at the ER. If we are to apply the ideal 1:3 doctor to patient ratio, then this wouldnt be an issue at all. Fact is however, there are about 20 patients minimum to just 1 doctor. How can one doctor who goes on the whole 24 hours for duty manage all of his patients? It would take a superman or superwoman to do such. Im sorry to tell you but there are superheroes in this crap hospital i am working in. I dont know but by some power, we could survive our duties that mostly are uneventful. By some isolated cases though, people from the outside world who already developed a negative impression on us would sensationalize an issue and this runs like wildfire. Fire that could burn down our dilapidated infrastructure but never our spirit.

We are always considered as an inferior race. Since we came from a crap hospital, people think that nothing good's coming from here. Not because we are working in an outdated hospital, we too are outdated. I am proud to say that our training program here is the best in town. Aside from the patients who forever will remain as our mentors, we are just damn blessed with consultants who painstakingly devote their time and knowledge in our training program - most of them are as volunteers. Also, where on earth can one find the department's chairman spending most of his time training residents and interns? I havent witnessed this from the medical school where i came from. We too are reading the same book as our contemporaries. Of course we can afford to buy one. Heck! Only this hospital is poor and not us.hehe We have a broadband connection at the office and we are adept in the latest technology. Yep! There are pc's and laptops inside that dilapidated infrastructure.

What im just trying to drive at is that, we too are capable of winning those contests. We too are human beings with heavy brains on top of our shoulders. We too are boardpassers who could effectively treat our patients. Only, we are working in a not so ideal institution. In short, those residents who work in the "ideal" institution dont have the right NOT to examine their patients. They are being paid to treat just like us. They are also expected to be honest in their dealings with their patients the way we are expected to act. Worse, they already have junior interns rotating with them and they must not afford to show these interns what's not ideal in patient management. Im not fingerpointing here ok? What im just trying to do is you know, shift the limelight on the Other Side. We have had too much publicity for the isolated blunders that we've committed that ive become almost allergic to it.

If only we're that weak at heart, we could have given up already after all those fingerpointing, bomb droppings and mudslingings. But no. We have an oath to live by. We have a role to play in this life. We have a script to follow. As for now all we could do is to stand strong, act brave, and shout for an injustice. INJUSTICE! How's that?hehe

I believe that we can never explain ourselves to everyone but fact is, we dont have to. What im doing here is that, im just whining and i still am under the influence of caffeine. That's all!