Emergency?.What emergency?

City folk are soft. KL people in general are silly when it comes to their health. They'll jump on any bandwagon,buy any supplement, cuss out doctors yet not really take measures to prevent illnesses. Nor do KL folk have any sense regarding what is an emergency or not. Last year, Dr Chua Soi Lek released a statement regarding abuse of the ER by the public. Yeah,he's right. Cases that should not be seen at all in hospital (in any developed country) will insist and persist in showing up to emergency. These people are the worst. They are relatively healthy, a lot very cheapskate, silly and abusive towards emergency staff. They show no respect or courtesy at all from the moment they come in.Yet,they play the victim. Look,let's go over the triage system.

Triage basically a french that means to sort out. During the Napoleonic wars (most innovative techniques were developed on the battlefront), surgeons had to quickly suss out who would benefit most from intervention. If someone was dead or injuries too grievious they were tagged black and left. People with broken limbs an breathing and talking would benefit most and tagged urgent. People who coud walk,stand,shout..well they could hold off and get themselves to treatment tents.

How it translates NOW:
triage 1: you re a goner if we don't resuscitate you NOW

triage 2: you have a potentially lethal condition.May progress to triage 1.

triage 3: no life-threatening presentation of illness.sometimes a 3 may be changed to a 2. Illness is dynamic. If you sicken,of course will change the level of your priority.

triage 4:as my specialist say...they can m*****. normal vitals,waiting time here and oz is 4-6 hours. Don't bitch,don't shout,you actually should not be seen at all in the ER.

In the Emergency,anyone who's seen by the MEDICAL ASSISTANT-who's a paramedic is assessed at the door. For some reason, just because the majority are male,the public assumes they are doctors. They are not. They have specific skills and are trained to recognise danger signs. ANY danger signs noted, these patients are pushed into the ER. At a red box,the team immeditely sees the patient. Notes whether or not this person is an impending collapse (TRIAGE 1/Resusc) or may have a life-threatening event: heart attacks, strokes, irregular heart beats, diabetic complications, asthma attacks, trauma.

However, a lot of people get very tetchy and yell if you ask very important questions. I have never,ever had anyone in Canada or Turkey or Nepal,shout at me because i was trying to do my job i.e save their lives. Malaysian people are extremely rude. Surprisingly,they are taken aback if you are stern with them. In fact,i polled all my colleagues. Most of us were trained in Australia, Ireland and the U.K. We bothered coming back because our families are here. However, we are all shocked at how poorly the Malaysian governmentand public treats the medical community. Why the brain drain?. Because neither the government nor the public respects our profession. Trust me,i have offers from the private sector here and other countries too. I stay because i really like emergency medicine and because my family needs me. Whenever i want to leave,someone will sicken from worry. This is blackmail.

I think the best thing to do now,in this platform; is to highlight what makes this job interesting. What's fascinating. What we could also do without?. If your doctor asks you,"what is the problem tonight?"; just bloody answer. PLease don't say "i have file here ahh,you just look lah". Look,this is Malaysia. The records people can't be bothered to even answer their bloody pagers to retrieve your file from the records office. At 2 bloody a.m. Plus,if you are not responsibe enough to know your medical problems and your medications,what does that say about your attitude to your health?.

A worrying trend is the tendency for a certain group of people to use the hospital as a dumping ground. Elderly parent,child with chronic problems,mental problems...get dumped in hospital. Yes,ALL ethnic groups do this although we see a certain group do it very frequently. There's elderly neglect going on in Malaysia and it stinks.

The worst thing about being exposed to The Ugly Malaysian is that a lot us eventually get fed-up and return to the countries where we are trained. It's not even the pay. It's the respect, quality of life and the chance to bring up your children in a more civilized society. Say what you will about social breakdown. from what we've seen and experienced,things are definitely better for our profession abroad.