A T R I P D O W N T H E M E M O R Y L A N E
Having graduated from medical school for quite some time, Philip recalls the worries he felt when he was in secondary school, often occupied with the stressful thoughts of not wanting to disappoint himself and others. “When I was young,” He states, “I felt that getting into medical school would be hard. Once I got in though, I found that graduating was even harder. But then, I realized, being a good and successful doctor is equally, or if not, the hardest.”
However, with the progression of time, Philip understands the unnecessariness of such concerns. “If you are passionate about this and have the motivation to work for it,” He suggests, “You can get it and everything will be fine. Even if you didn’t get in, it’s actually okay. There are still so many solutions and other career paths you can take. Or, you can always try again.”
During his medical course, Philip had also studied masters in research, and through his studying did Philip discover that although it is understandable that one desires personal findings that are deemed noble, such forceful discovery of something entirely brand new can be unnecessary. “It’s like what my professor told us,” He states, “ ‘Never answer a question that has never been asked.’ Rather than desperately seek for noble deeds, you should identify a good relevant problem and look for a solution. Maybe then, you will find a noble discovery.” As Philip continues on, he mentions that he had done research on Hong Kong as an example. In his exploration, he had pinpointed out the disadvantages and the urgent demands of the Hong Kong people, which allowed him to have an easier breakthrough. “Hence,” Philip emphasizes, “You should always ask questions that people are asking and urgently wanting to find an answer. If not, you will only be wasting time and resources.”
B L O O D S W E A T T E A R S
In terms of comparison between Hong Kong and foreign countries, when asked about the backwardness of Hong Kong’s medical structure, Philip debates the question’s truthfulness as in his opinion, Hong Kong’s medical industry is far more advanced than other countries. “I can realistically tell you this since I have had some experience in London and in New York.” As he explains further, “Our public healthcare system is free of charge, even the poverty can receive the treatment necessary, but in America, such an industrially advanced country, if you do not have any insurance, you can die from the slightest disease transmitted from third world countries as there is no medical healthcare for you.”
The USA follows a 100% private healthcare system in which just a little test will cause the doctors to price you with the examination fee, in addition to extra money added for their own benefits. The only way you can afford this is to buy insurance, yet it depends on what type of health insurance you buy; the better you bought, the more coverage you will get, but the more expensive it costs. If you are poor and lack the ability to purchase any kind of health insurance, you have no access to any healthcare.
“In the UK, everything is the opposite,” Philip continues, “The UK, like Hong Kong, has a national health service. The theory is that, no matter how rich or how poor you are, we emphasize on equality, hence all UK citizens will deserve equal treatment. Though this causes a problem: the waiting time is dreadfully long, and the rich cannot pay for private healthcare either, they are forced to line up. Hong Kong is more equal, despite following the UK NHS system, as long as you have a passport, you just need to pay a wee amount of money to cover everything you need.”
Not to mention, Hong Kong has numerous private doctors, which gives you the option to choose between private and public healthcare systems as long as you have the ability to afford the cost. “With Hong Kong’s medical structure being very inclusive,” Philip voices, “It allows flexibility for people to choose between different types of healthcare, unlike certain countries that are very strict and rigid.”
However, Hong Kong’s medical industry is not free of problems. Speaking from personal experience, Philip finds the biggest problem of all is the insufficiency in the number of doctors. While recalling his first year of working as an intern doctor, Philip jokingly compares that particular lifestyle to mimicking the Hong Kong TV drama show “On Call 360 Hours”. “There is no such thing as socializing or simple pleasure like drinking,” He states, “You need to work for 36 hours with no break. You will start from 8am to 8pm, despite your colleagues finishing their shifts, you will have to continue on and work until 8am the next day in which your colleagues come back to begin their shifts. But you will still continue to work until 8pm again, only when the colleagues leave then you can leave too.”
During this intensive period of time, Philip admits to having limited toilet breaks and that even drinking water is very difficult and rare. “The on-call system is a very traditional system,” As he continues to describe, “We have to start from the morning, with the inability to leave until the night-time on the second day. Meaning we have to stay overnight, simply because there is a lack of doctors. In foreign countries, there is no such thing, you will only have to work for 12 hours maximum.”
Having worked in England for quite some time, Philip understands the difference in regards to the labour a doctor has to endure daily. “While I was working in the UK,” he recalls, “I would only be seeing 5 patients in the afternoon and my colleagues would already think that my consultations with these ‘numerous patients’ to be very fast.” Back in Hong Kong, Philip’s normal afternoon consists of seeing at least 20 patients, hence the quality of the consultations decreases severely. “ I cannot possibly allow my patients to have 5 minute consultation with 30 minutes of quality service,” He explains, “The patients will think that these doctors are very bad. But there is no time for examination. We ourselves are not happy with this, yet we can’t do anything because there are just too many patients and too few doctors.”
R E M E M B E R T H E E
In his fruitful years of working in the medical industry, Philip has undergone and experienced various situations and moments that have impacted and shaped him into the man he has become today. However, a particular experience with a patient during his intern years has vividly left an imprint on him. “I was doing internal medicine, and the situation there was incredibly and utterly chaotic,” Philip recalls, “That was where I met a patient of my age. She has a very rare immune disease which causes her to lack cancer surveillance. Our immune systems, other than tolerating, are in charge of fighting off and eliminating unwanted cells; cells replicate every day, if a mutated cell replicates, the chance of having cancer increases, our immune system should have a sensory sense to detect these mutated cells and demolish them. But this girl has such a poor immune system that it doesn’t have the ability to kill off these cancer cells, hence just in her 20s, she has already suffered from 3 to 4 different kinds of cancer, namely lung, ovaries, stomach.”
As he proceeds on with the story, “I was very tired when I met her. I was helping another patient, an eldery, with their blood withdrawal when that patient nearby smiled at me and encouraged me to keep going. I found it very touching and I began to talk more to the girl, then I discovered that many intern doctors are also very close to her, since she was unable to be released from hospital. However, I never saw her unhappy, she had such a positive vibrance and she wrote cards to all the intern doctors, gifting them with little charms and trinkets she made herself. It was my first time thinking that my job is really important and I understood the importance of comforting a patient.”
Regardless of the patient’s outcome, Philip believes that a doctor’s mentality and attitude are very crucial: They can’t give up on their patient, even if their condition is worsening, the doctor needs to do their very best, and in the end, the patient will appreciate your hard work and that is the biggest contribution a doctor can make. “Doctors are very dispensable,” Philip states, “Do not think that just because you studied intensively and have experience, you are irreplaceable; often nowadays, people can just google and prescribe necessary medicine for themselves. But your emotional interpretation and the comforting of your patients, that is in its essence, irreplaceable. After all, this is a thing that a robot cannot replicate.”
In 2020, the pandemic has also become quite memorable to Philip too. “I have around 10 years of experience,” He expresses, “And COVID has truly opened my eyes to the heroicness of doctors. My parents just had their 60s birthdays, but due to the pandemic, I was unable to celebrate their birthday. All I could do was to place the birthday cake in front of my mother’s doorstep, ask them to disinfect and collect it, and called them on the phone to wish them a happy birthday. This is the first time that I ever cried because I thought that I had disappointed my family.”
But Philip also understands that this is something that he, as a doctor, should be doing. And in that moment, he admitted that he found it very difficult to be part of the medical staff, having to sacrifice family for the sake of the sickly. Yet he also acknowledges and understands that it is a responsibility, a privilege, to be able to aid the needy and nurse them.
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