How would anyone define enough as enough?

I was googling for 1Klinik as a keyword because I would like to confirm on the accuracy of what I heard with regards to a new enforcement imposed on us towards the contribution to this 'privilege'. That was how I stumbled across Dr. Pagalavan's blog   page. I read one of the pages and I am now filled with opinions of my own -ready to explode in the coming paragraphs.

My recent encounters with various local surgeons shaped my opinions as well but I must stress on this point: not every surgeon is the same and I did communicate with some extremely well-mannered and experienced doctor who appear to look pretty young (he might age older but he looks like if he is in his early 40s). This type of doctors are the ones whom I would give my respect to because they simply earn it. These doctors happen to be in both government and private hospital and I do think that the younger doctors (or some arse old surgeons) should emulate their attitude.

Medical doctor is a profession in which I thought to be expensive in terms of maintenance. Prior to obtaining a license to practice as a specialist or even reach the status of consultant, you would need to pay your way into that field. The education cost is high and the maintenance of certain fellowship is of course, equally costly. Everything is becoming a business nowadays including education. If you come from a poor family, just make sure you study good enough to secure scholarships all along the way and get your medical education from a respected institution. You need not only passion. You need strength to break through the roadblocks and of course, the red lights turn green if your financial situation is supportive enough for you to take up this course.

I am a person driven by passion and I believe that if you do not have passion in healing and helping the sick, you should not go into medicine. I am a part of the community who doesn't think that the life of a doctor is easy - especially when you are still paving your way up from a medical officer status. Even after you enter private practice, you still are held responsible to a tons of other things - doing your ward rounds, perform operation, seeing patients, be on duty for a fixed amount of hours or maybe more BUT, that is what you have committed yourself to.

In the #2 mentioned in the blog: Nature of Job – sitting in a cozy consultation rooms, joking along with their patients, and ends up with big bucks every month and #3: Are rich
 - now that contradict with his statement of doctors making about nett 16k salary a month. I might attract criticisms to my own statement but from his remark, I think doctors with this mindset is so SHALLOW and PAMPERED. RM16k worth of salary per month is not considered as rich. So, may I ask what figure that one should earn to bring your income level to the RICH category?

Doctors study hard and they work even harder. Their job routine is almost 24 hours a day for 365 days and they always have a lawsuit liability - so do nurses. Don't they work as hard? Don't they work on shifts in the operation theater? Don't they bear the same responsibility of nursing the patient and assist the doctors during an operation? 

How about laboratory research assistants? Don't they practice basic science (in Malaysia) and contribute to the science community so that they understand a little piece of the bigger picture? Don't they not go back to their labs during weekends or even stay late into the night for an experiment? On the other hand, how about teachers and lecturers? Don't they need to work over-time and struggle to think of how to assist your child/troubled student in their learning progress? They bring home their problems at work and try to solve them in a creative manner while trying to keep to their KPI. 

If RM16k paid is not justifiable to a day of hard work - what about these people who sacrifices their time just as much as doctors? Oh...do you mean to say that because they don't save lives and their contribution doesn't change the lifestyle of a person, then, it is not worth to pay them more than RM3k a month? 

Sorry to say that without teachers at the basic education level, a child might even consider of entering the field of medicine and without laboratory researchers, your life might just revolve around paracetamols or CHOP. Without nurses, who will be the person organizing instruments or caring for the patient post-operation/treatment?

A person has to understand that there is no free lunch in the world. 

You are paid a certain amount of money to provide a certain level of services or job commitment. It is as simple as paying an air-stewardess for her time spent away from her family and friends as well as a high risk of plane crash during her tenure.

No one thinks that doctors have an easy life but then again, don't we see doctors attending regional conferences every now and then for knowledge exchange/updates? Hmmm...how about the time when I saw a surgeon driving a Passat? Ah...cynics would say, that is to reduce their stress level and a pat on the back for a good job done. If a doctor thinks that the pay that they are getting is not justifiable for the amount of work that they have to do, then this person should not venture into the path of medicine. 
Hey, doctors do screw up a patient's life at the ignorance of the patient as well. At times, doctors ALSO make decisions not to the best interest of the patient BUT to the convenience of the operation which they deemed as to the best interest of the patient. Grey areas but who knows? If you get a scar of 20cm due to the inexperience management of the doctor, you can't really sue them for that because the doctor might reason that it was due to the necessity of the treatment (when actually a 10cm incision is sufficient in the hands of the experienced). 

#4 One can become a specialist merely by attending lecturer classes and passing up assignments/coursework, like MBA
: Have the doctors taken MBA before? Can the doctors think like an MBA/business associate? What makes anyone thinks that MBA is all about passing up a paper and doing assignments? It does involve problem solving, model application and OF COURSE, MBA holder also work part-time - that translates to them having to WORK and STUDY at the same time. Doctors are excellent with anatomy and the biology/mechanics of body function but let's try this: throw them a book of marketing management and ask them to do a marketing proposal plan. 
Or...it's just as fun to throw them something similar to their science background: ask them to design an protocol for a laboratory experiment, mouse work maybe? And say, test a hypothesis on the impact of repeated specific compound treatment to the mouse's metabolism/or whichever parameter.
My conclusion is that every profession and course of study has its own level of difficulties. If I am to ask a doctor to lower down his or her ego to try a day of being a lobby receptionist at an international hotel, I am sure that he or she would walk out of that position after a day. 

Also, another interesting article in which he posted on his blog where this statement was found:

In oncology, doctors were allowed to profit from drug sales. So doctors would buy expensive cancer drugs at bulk prices from drugmakers and then sell them at much higher prices to their patients.

“I grew up in that system. I was spending $1.5 million a month on buying treatment drugs,” he said. In 2005, Medicare revised the reimbursement guidelines for cancer drugs, which effectively made reimbursements for many expensive cancer drugs fall to less than the actual cost of the drugs.

I'm just thinking out loud. Now, does this blog post of his meant to say that doctors go bankrupt because they can no longer profit SO MUCH from their service? I understand that medicine is a business and everyone enjoys huge profit but hey, if one do not manage his own assets/spending behavior wisely, that person can't blame another for making him/her bankrupt. I am so downright sure that a doctor can still make a profit from the sale of your service and the medicine which you prescribe if you are able to manage yourself better!

(~_~) what a world.