Year: 2015

PETALING JAYA: One doctor decided to opt out of her housemanship training after realising that it was not the life she wanted.

The 32-year-old woman, who only wished to be known as Dr MH, said she decided to stop her housemanship after 14 months of training because the long hours were stressful and there was no work-life balance.

“I was on-call every other day and I realised that even after becoming a medical officer or specialist, the schedule would still be heavy. I didn’t want that kind of lifestyle,” she said.

Dr MH, who is now a medical adviser for a pharmaceutical company, said as a houseman in a training hospital in the Klang Valley then, she worked from 7am to 5pm and would be on-call duty from 6pm to 7am the following morning before continuing with the normal working hours the next day.

“During on-call duty, there are usually patients to attend to. We get little sleep in between and have to wake up at 5am to take blood samples of patients before the senior doctors come in,” she said.

She said her late father was horrified when she resigned and even asked relatives to persuade her to change her mind.

She admitted that her father had wanted her to do medicine although she had wanted to do actuarial science.

“Money was not a factor for leaving the profession even though pharmaceutical companies pay better. I am more satisfied with the stable working hours,” she said.

Asked what advice she would give to students wanting to pursue medicine, she said they must have the passion and good grades because the course was intensive and the work demanding.

“They should not be influenced by their peers or their parents for choosing medicine,” she said.

As the sun rose over Singapore General Hospital, paralympic athlete William Tan arrived in his wheelchair at a tribute area for Mr Lee Kuan Yew and bowed his head in silence.

He told the BBC that as a child, he had watched Mr Lee cry on television as he announced one of the country’s most traumatic moments: its separation from Malaysia in 1965.

“It’s a sad day for all Singaporeans. I lived in the era where he built Singapore, and I’ve seen it progress,” said the 58-year-old.

For Sayeed Hussain, who brought his two teenage children to pay respects before they headed off to school, Mr Lee’s legacy was social harmony. “He did a lot for us, helped to shape a multi-racial and multi-cultural Singapore,” he said.
The country’s newspapers darkened their mastheads and published Mr Lee’s picture on their front.

Mr Lee was a towering figure in the lives of many Singaporeans, leading a team that transformed Singapore to a rich, stable country.

He has also been strongly criticised for his human rights record, his ruthless pursuit of political opponents and views on race and genetics. But in the immediate hours after his death, few Singaporeans were willing to touch on the more controversial aspects of his legacy.

Even opponents, such as politician Chee Soon Juan who was sued for defamation by Mr Lee, expressed only condolences. Low Thia Khiang, the leader of Singapore’s main opposition party in parliament, Workers’ Party, said Mr Lee’s contribution would be “remembered for generations to come”.
‘A charging lion’

Online and offline, the country mourned. Radio and television played tributes and downbeat music, newspapers darkened their mastheads, digital billboards were blanked out, and television stations ran tickers announcing his death.