I don’t understand why people who reported the truth are being captured, while those who caused the trouble isn’t!
I don’t understand why people who were randomly accussed are being arrested, while others aren’t!
I don’t understand what is happening anymore!
If you’ve been following Malaysian politics, you should know what I’m talking about.
I don’t even know whether should I say “God Bless”
So I started my preceptorship at the Bukit Batok NHG Polyclinic.
Preceptor is defined as an identified experienced practitioner who provides transitional role support and learning experiences within a collegial relationship for a specific time, while continuing to perform some or all of the other responsibilities of their position.
I’ll be attach to the Pharmacy for 6 weeks, fulfilling the Republic’s requirements prior to obtaining a license to practice. Workload has been pretty hectic, working six days a week, with minimal allowance and non-existing welfare benefits.
I will load some pictures and blog about interesting events during my attachment.
I feel a bit annoyed that many people do not know the exact roles and responsibilities of a Pharmacist, what’s with the recent reply on YB Lim’s Blog. In addition, I have also been enlightening friends and acquaintances of mine on what we really do when I tell them about my attachment.
During one of the counselling sessions I sat in with the Pharmacist, the patient actually thanked us after the session by saying “Thank you ah, Doctor”
My mentor quickly replied the patient by saying “I’m not a Doctor, I’m a Pharmacist”
I feel that there is a need to ‘publicize’ the pharmacist among Pharmacy students and registered Pharmacists alike. Many a times, I get questions like “So this degree will just allow you to give them the medications? How hard can that be?” or even “Doesn’t it bother you that you know you’ll never be on top in the healthcare scene, since Doctors are the most likely ones to be the final decision makers”
It’ll be quite hard for patients to see what we really do, since we work behind the counter most of the time. And since we’re the final personnel they see upon collecting their medication, they’ll probably channel all their perceptions and frustrations to us as ‘being the bad ones’. There was one patient, with sore throat, runny nose and fever (typical symptoms of the common cold aka flu by the way) insisted that there was a mistake on the Pharmacy side for not giving her antibiotics, although it was the doctor who decided not to prescribe her with them.
The other problem is of course we can’t go around putting big signs saying “Look at me! I’m a Pharmacist” as the law only allows us to put one mini sign showing our name and our title e.g. Aaron J Lam, RPh, BSc. (Hons?) Pharmacy.
FYI: Just because you have sore throat and everything doesn’t mean that you need to undergo antibiotic therapy. Antibiotics are only given if you’re diagnosed with an infection from bacterial origin. Viral infection will warrant antibiotics useless.
When Raja Petra Kamarudin (or known as RPK) was arrested for his article on the Malaysia-Today website, I thought I checked out the website on what it was all about.
I got hooked onto the website since. If you value freedom of speech, and freedom of the media. Then support RPK by donating for his bail. The family is requesting $1 per person/blogger. I donated $10.
————- UPDATE ————
updates 16:16 - Account statement made by RPK’s wife on the donation as at 4pm today
From CIMB bank account : RM24,500.00
From Paypal account : $3,283.61 USD (net total, after deduction of fee charges by Paypal services)
Would you look at the sum! And it’s only today the fund was started! Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks this way =)
Just got invited to participate in the “Universitas 21 (U21) Undergraduate Research Conference” from my recent research on “Complementary and Alternative Usage among Breast Cancer Patients in Singapore”.
Will update you guys again on WHAT THE HECK IS U21! I don’t even know currently as it was my Professor who submitted my name =p
But in any case, I’m awaiting for “Good luck” and “Congratulations” on my comments yeah *boasts*
The Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society and the Health Ministry of Malaysia are conducting a trial on the separation of roles between pharmacists and private practitioners. Pharmacists are allowed to be the sole dispenser while doctors provide patients with the prescription.
The response from the public has been generalle y negative. Heris one article ran by Lim Kit Siang.
Here is my response to the article:
With the current system, it is not economical to open so many pharmacies within the community as our role as a healthcare provider is only limited to minor ailments and non-prescription drugs. However, in the proposed system, Pharmacists can play a role in the medication process by opening up pharmacies practically everywhere! By then, it will also be viable to make pharmacies 24 hours. A certain law/regulation/code can be done to ensure that there is a pharmacy available within the vicinity of a clinic or such.
Pharmacies are bounded by the Code of Ethics as stipulated by the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia. It states that “The Pharmacist shall not by words or deed or by inference thereof discredit or disparage the professional integrity, or judgement, or skill of another pharmacist or of a member of an allied profession”. This means that if a patient comes to the pharmacy with a prescription for Panadol, pharmacists are not allowed to dispense any other brands of Paracetamol other than Panadol. As such, when pharmacists are in a situation where they are uncertain of the prescription ordered by the doctor, it is only professional of them to consult the doctor without alarming the patient. In the case of the Patient above, her re-filling of prescription is by order of the doctor. The pharmacists have to follow the prescription unless he suspects any non-compliance or medication errors. Whether or not he suspects anything is the onus of his professional conduct. To say that the pharmacist will overrule the doctor’s prescription is not true at all.
In addition to that, private clinics usually lump everything as “consultation and medicine fees” onto the receipt. As some have mentioned, we all don’t know the exact breakdown of the prices. Perhaps the Ministry should enforce such breakdown requirements, and then only we can compare the prices between a clinic and a pharmacy.
Certain medical ailments also do not require a doctor’s attention. The pharmacies role is to counsel the patient on his/her current condition and to recommend a therapy for him/her to follow. If you have seen patients talking to the pharmacist and pharmacist recommending some medication, the pharmacist is not going beyond his roles as all these are minor ailments. Unless the pharmacist suspects further underlying causes, he is obligated to ‘refer him/her to a doctor’. Yes pharmacies can help you measure your BP, measure your body temperature, check for scabies, dandruff or sunburn. Are these what you refer to as physical examination? In economic sense, this definitely reduces the patients’ financial burden to pay for consultation fees. Pharmacists do not charge for consultation.
My point here is, the physician-pharmacist role with regards to proper medication usage and patient safety can be greatly enhanced through such a system. Of course, there are other factors to consider like whether current pharmacists in Malaysia are equip through their professional education to dispense and counsel the patients appropriately? And whether patients are ready to trust pharmacist as much as how they trust the doctors.
FYI, you don’t have to get the medicine from the clinic itself currently. If you request for a prescription, you can always bring a prescription to your friendly neighbourhood pharmacist!
Comments are greatly appreciated =)
Political Science is an area which I find interesting and would love to explore. Unfortunately I have issues with expressing myself in public, and that I would not want to ridicule a public policy without ridiculing myself.
I started liking Political Sciences after I took up the module ‘Government and Politics of Singapore’.
‘What the F**k is there to study about?’
There’s no government in any country that is not sly,
I went down to the Parliament this morning after being informed by my lecturer that there will be a sitting in the afternoon. During this sitting, the public is allowed to be spectators from atop, but not allowed to participate in the discussion. The objective of opening up the sitting to the public was to allow transparency in the parliament, and to ‘show how incompetent the opposition can be’, as rephrased and quoted by Lee Kuan Yew when such allowance was introduced in the late 1980s.
Developing nations, including
That aside, I wanted to watch this particular sitting as the government was going to debate and propose a controversial issue that existed since the early 1990s: the increase of ministers’ salaries. Proposed in 1994 by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, he claimed that the civil service required a salary increment that is pegged/benchmarked to the private sector as then only can the civil service attract top talent to produce top services. He further claimed that if ministers are not paid well, the government will be corrupt and inefficient (direct target to a country I call home LOL). Even though some may argue that it is the national interest that what brings people to the civil services, however patriotic a person can be money is the ultimate attraction. This means to say, the government would have to pay this lawyer who earns 2 million a year in an international law firm 2 million as well to work in the government sector. Opposition retaliated saying money should be better spent else where instead of rewarding ministers who are ‘already earning a stable income for the next 5 years’. The people were skeptical about such a decision and hence gave the opposition some sort of support.
Anyway, they did increase during that term, now after subsequent increases, they want to increase the salaries again. This time, they want to increase the civil servants as well, especially management executives, management supports, and home teams (police, prisons etc).
The salary increment is benchmarked with the top eight (or is it six?) professionals in the country. And thru some formula they created, will determine how much far off is the civil servants underpaid as compared to the private sectors.
The proposal was put forward by the Minister for Defense. He proposed how much percentage should the civil servants salaries be increased, including the ministers and their parliamentary counterparts. As informative and substance as he can be, he was utterly boring the S**t out of me. But I did manage to catch a few stuffs here and there like how much increment should go to where etc.
Further responses came from the members. Most argued that there should be a better way to benchmark the increase in civil servants’ salaries, especially the ministers’, as it is a matter of national controversy. One MP argued that it wasn’t the right timing of such a proposal, as the government just imposed a 7% GST Tax this coming June/July. The People might take it that the hike in tax will be used to fund the ministers’ pocket.
I was actually waiting for the Opposition to say something as they have been against the idea of paying civil talents as much as private talents. Low Thia Khiang, argued that ‘even if you upgrade from giving peanuts to bananas, you might still hire monkeys!’
In fact, that was the only thing I remembered from his speech.
I am MOST DISAPPOINTED with today’s sitting. The opposition was not ready to attack the government with their beliefs. Or rather, they have switched their stand to ‘supporting the government’ and ‘believing that there should be other ways to justify the increase in ministers’ salaries’ (which has been covered by other PAP members). His report and findings were not concrete enough, giving the super-power Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew an advantage to counter his argument.
‘Which country is the only one who transformed a third-world into first world within one generation? If we don’t do this (increase salary), we’ll downgrade into another south-east Asian’ (somehow I feel that he was
Besides that, his command for English was weak. I just have something against such people (even though I’m not that proficient). The Parliament allows the members to speak in four types of languages: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. I
Perhaps the party didn’t have enough time and energy to research. Perhaps he should not have cited other countries as an example. Perhaps because he was opposition. Perhaps, there just isn’t anything to go against in this issue.
‘I support the increase in salaries, but I feel that there should be other ways to come up with
how much you should increase it by’ that’s my notion.
I agree that by paying top salaries, you can get top talents to run the country. No Ali, Ah Seng or Muthu will work for the government just because of patriotism and nationalism. If you don’t want to give them monetary benefits, you should give them non-monetary ones. But then again, minister cars and holiday houses at
‘The People get the idea that you need to pay a high sum to get top talent, but prove it in another way’
All in all, my visit to the Parliament wasn’t an enjoyable one, coupled with the embarrassment I had getting lost in the building. I felt that the Opposition wasn’t strong enough, or rather competent enough. It is true that you need an opposition in the government for transparency, but if he/she is just not capable/experienced enough, I suggest that he/she just sit down there and follow the pragmatism concept that what makes PAP so successful and sly for the past 4 decades. Perhaps I should give them allowance considering that their presence in the parliament hasn’t been that long. But how long do they need before they can overtake the current government? We never know.
I have very few guy friends in pharmacy. Well partly because there are only 30/120 or so guys in the cohort, and alot of them have cliques or speak too much chinese. (L-R: Shane, DJCK, Kelvin) In class I only hang out with the Sheares Kent Ridge gang (which are predominantly girls) because we are usually late together. So that's why our relationship is closer I guess!
ows how long. And I love being transported like an illegal immigrant.
