Is MOH oblivious of the Occupational Health interest of its junior employees?
posted in - Nation, - UK Doc |Read this news for the context of the following passage.
Recently there was a Malaysian doctor accompanying a patient in an ambulance from Seremban Hospital to Selayang Hospital. On the journey, the tyre burst and an accident happened. The doctor suffered a terrible injury and eventually died.
Following that there were criticisms that Malaysian government doctors are not covered by insurance when carrying out their duty of escorting patients in ambulance. The government later denied that.
Now who’s right and who’s wrong I do not know. You just can’t rely on what you read in the news. But what amazed me with the Star’s news is that:
The family of young Dr Norbaizura Yahaya, who died two weeks after being involved in an ambulance accident, is not eligible for compensation because she was not confirmed in her post.
MMA president Datuk Dr Teoh Siang Chin said her death raised the issue of young doctors being exposed to occupational risks but not eligible for compensation until they are confirmed in their job. “Confirmation can take up to two years after reporting for duty and during this period the doctor has to carry out all normal duties in hospital as well as accompany patients on emergency transfer….”
Again, I do not know how accurate is this but still what was said is amazing.
First of all, what is this ’confirmation’? Perhaps some government doctors can enlighten outsiders like me. It is amazing to me that a doctor can be employed, made to carry out duties, paid salary like an employee but when accident happens, a different set of rule applies as if that doctor was never an employee.
Secondly an employee status should be confirmed and contract (with all the employee’s entitlements printed on it) signed before the job begins. Do Malaysian government doctors actually sign a contract like that before they start their jobs? If what MMA president said is true that the gov takes up to 2 years to ‘confirm’ and without the ‘confirmation’ doctors are not eligible for compensation, then one has to ask if the MOH is oblivious of the Occupational Health welfare of it’s junior employees. This makes a real mockery to the government’s recent preaching about Occupational Health issues and how employers should uphold this interest.
Last 5 posts by UK Doc
- Drooling..... - August 2nd, 2006
- Oral cancer prevention: to screen or to educate? - June 8th, 2006
- How can we improve survival of cancer but not its mortality rate? - May 27th, 2006
- Troubled times for International Medical Graduates in UK – Part II - May 6th, 2006
- Down syndrome: the need for a surveillance programme - December 6th, 2005
September 28th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I think this is an important lesson. Don’t depend on the Gomen to take care of you. Young doctors starting work should first of all seriously consider getting life insurance. Term insurance is inexpensive, and you can get group insurance via the MMA. It’s all the more important if you have dependents – ageing parents, young children etc.
September 28th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
In Civil service, a doctor was given a probation period of 2 years. A doctor once graduate will be given an ofer letter. After a year you will be given a letter of ‘tarikh lantikan’. This date is very important because it states when you start your civil service. After 2 years, you will be given a confirmation letter after fullfilling criteria such as BM credit, induction courses, security screening and asset declaration. All this process may take time. The minimum time is 2 years. Some doctors take more than 2 years to complete all these, otherwise, THERE WILL BE NO CONFIRMATION. No comformation means no salary increase (even the yearly increase), no consideration of promotion, loss of seniority in the future, Not eligible for any Master program and best of all not entitle to any compensation such as after occupational hazard or even losing your life during this period. These are the craps that ALL doctors have to go thorugh and not to say the PART 2 regarding promotion for specialist which we had already discussed in lenght in other entry of this blog.
September 28th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
In the new rule of SOCSO, all employee with pay under 3k had to be given this SOCSO benefit where the premium is paid by the employers. In MOH, the HO basic salary is less than 3K but I can assured you no where in the interview process or within your offer letter, there is no insurance or SOCSO benefit mentioned. The MOH / Government just b*s* us that they got all there employees insured BUT we never heard what kind of insurance or how much we are insured. Not even this day after 10 years of service and as a specialist! The only thing I know is they will pay compensation for any medical negligence but nothing more than that.
September 28th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
In hospital our induction is always delayed. If you are in a busy rotation, or are very hardworking, your induction may be delayed for up to 3 years. When the economy was bad, the induction was even cancelled for a while.
So if you are in a lepak rotation, or you are clever to butter up the secretary, or hang around the office a lot, your induction will be scheduled earlier.
So you see, confirmation will take 2-3 years at least. It’s all designed to keep you working for peanuts.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Schomos of MMA is the body to take this issue with the government. The junior doctors should be conscious of their predicament and work through Schomos. Term insurance for 10 or 15 years and disability insurance are valuable protections for these young doctors and as a group, they maybe able to organise a package with a good premium.
September 29th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
what’s a shame! Chua soi lek has misled the public and the profession that the doctors are insurance covered while accompanying patient. Where is the compensation now? RM10000 given by MMA is another idiotic act, they should instead help the family sue the government. RM10,000 is less than what a foreign worker can get if they die i.e RM20,000.
September 30th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Your woes as a doctor does not end with confirmation either. From placement, promotions and post-graduate applications, the entire process is shrouded in secrecy with little transparency. It displays the lack of care that the MOH has for its personnel. With low pay and inhumane working hours which defies labour laws, there is little wonder why the brain drain will continue to escalate. The bottom line is MOH does not care. So long as doctors continue to fill the vacancies, they are the least bit worried about their welfare. Afterall, most policymakers decide in the comfort of their offices. Having a medical doctor as a health minister has made little difference either as he appears politically dead. The MMA is also on crutches and lacks influence and leadership.
Things have to change. But in order for that to happen, some brave soul needs to step up and motivate a paradigm shift.
September 30th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
The main problem is that our ministers don’t seem to know what is going in their own ministries. This is the reason why surprising things are happening!
In fact, every PM, on his first day in office, must instruct all his ministers to find out the latest situation in their respective ministry. If there are any deficiencies (this covers the rules & regulations as well), they must put them in order.
A check list must be kept so that on-going monitoring can also be done as a matter of routine.
This is the way the ministers can feel the pulse of their ministry.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Sad state of affairs shrouding the malaysian health care system. It goes to say how important it is to have a credible government in order to have a credible health ministry. We have a long way to go in terms of health care provisional reforms and it doesn’t look too bright at present. I can see why a lot of malaysian doctor’s trained overseas choose to stay abroad. I hope the powers to be take note of this escalating destruction of our decent right to quality of health care at the expense of ruthless unscrupulous politicians.