‘Just part and parcel of this job’: Abuse from patients

nayr69sg

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https://thehomeground.asia/survey-j...als-want-out-cite-unsustainable-working-hours

‘Just part and parcel of this job’: Abuse from patients not pressing enough reason to leave


‘F*** off’, ‘Useless Doctor!’, ‘You shouldn’t be a doctor’, ‘If I were in my 50s, I’d rape you’. These are examples of abusive statements hurled at junior doctors by the patients they serve. Such remarks might have gotten most human resource personnel involved if it were in another setting. But, in the medical sector, these situations happen so frequently that most doctors simply shrug them off as “just another day in healthcare”. Despite facing unreasonable behaviour from some patients and caregivers, most junior doctors are motivated to stay the course, and to continue to have their patients’ best interests at heart.


Abuse from the public appears to be commonplace. Of the 176 respondents, 77.3 per cent indicated that they have been on the receiving end of verbal and physical abuse from patients. Other junior doctors have also faced physical and sexual threats. One shared that a patient “peed on [me] deliberately”, and another had to fend off a patient who “tried to kiss me while I was on call.”



Given how frequent these incidents occur, many doctors shrug the abusive behaviour off as “another day in healthcare”. While some recall being told by seniors that “it’s just part and parcel of this job.” Many of these doctors stay on, determined to fulfill their pledge to serve humanity to their best ability, and with their patients’ best interests at heart.
 
Many private doctors are cocky in Singapore. They are also huge tax evaders espectially in the pre-COVID days, but for some reasons IRAS is reluctant to shame them.
 
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