LAST week, I chanced upon a copy of the May 2009 issue of the medical fraternity’s MMA News . The cover of the journal was titled “Government doctors — modern-day slaves”. I was pleasantly surprised to see an article on housemanship inside — “Housemanship training in Malaysia” — by the Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican.

This was, in fact, his keynote address at the First Seminar on Housemanship Training in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Britain in Kuala Lumpur on April 25.

He revealed findings from a recent study on housemen in 28 government hospitals:

“Two-thirds of them (67.8 per cent) found housemanship training highly stressful and 53 per cent of them had sometimes thought of quitting because they could not cope with the stress.

“The highest level of stress was related to working hours and workload. Thirty to 40 per cent of them never had time for social or recreational activities. 21.8 per cent required counselling and 5.8 per cent needed treatment”.

If more than half the medical interns had sometimes thought of quitting, and a quarter of them were in need of medical counselling or treatment, imagine how stressful their working conditions must be.

The health minister should take this study’s findings seriously. There are not enough doctors in Malaysia, hence we cannot afford to lose them even before they have completed their housemanship.

The minister must have the doctors’ best interests at heart and should take care of them. They should be healthy, happy and mentally alert to perform efficiently.

It is, therefore, only logical that there is an immediate revamp in our archaic, unhealthy and hazardous system of housemanship.

Only then can we, the rakyat, feel safe in the hands of government doctors.

Source: NST – July 3, 2009