It’s truly disheartening that despite repeatedly sharing the true scenarios, there are still those who think otherwise.
Think for the future health care of your grandchildren.
That would be my message to all the senior politicians making the decisions on the contract system today. Without a fair and just pathway, we will have a collapsed system in 15 to 20 years.
That would be about the time that I would be nearing retirement, but be unable to as there would be too few specialists to do what I do. And once again, we will have the same lopsided system we have now with lots of junior doctors but insufficient specialist cover.
Yes, gratitude is very important and thus, it is on that same sentiment that the government should be thankful for the continued exemplary service of all the health care workers.
Should we all work to what we are paid to do, the entire system will crash, with waiting times easily doubled and the accessibility reduced significantly. Health care workers are working on overdrive, doing all we can to provide beyond first class services with the meagre resources afforded to us.
Please do not belittle the efforts of the health care workers that have been long suffering. We are currently highlighting the most pressing issue of our juniors, but there is a multitude of other issues that are pending.
Instead of coming up with statements that only add to the ire of health care workers, I do hope that we can focus our efforts on ensuring a fair and sustainable career pathway for not only our junior doctors, but all other health care workers affected by the contract system.
Dr Kevin Ng is the chairman of SCHOMOS (Malaysian Medical Association’s Section Concerning House Officers and Medical Officers) 2018-2020.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
