Somebody brought up the issue of on-call allowance. We will try to broach this subject slowly as it is quite a long story and a story with no apparent end in sight. We want to write a long post on this by decided that it might be better to do it in parts and we can discuss this as we go along.
As civil servants, we are expected to work during normal office hours.But as doctors, we do also work outside of these working hours as patients do not just get unwell during office hours. We do on-calls. We stay overnight in hospitals. We work weekends. We work at night. We work in shifts. We do all this to serve the public. Unfortunately we do not get paid to work outside these hours. This is why when the general order is mentioned, rather than concentrate on our clothes, tardiness, we tend to say why are we not paid for the extra hours? It should work both ways.
Does this sound surprising to anybody that we are not being paid for extra hours? Is it fair for us to ask for on-call allowance? We will leave it at that and continue at a later time.
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An MCQ for a recent Brunei Medical Board exam…..
Which one of the following will be true?
a. Granting of the on-call allowance of for doctors working in Brunei,
b. Revising of the current salary scale of doctors working in Brunei,
c. There will only be one DG in MOH Brunei or
d. Brunei will send an astronaut to the moon.
I would suggest you update ur facts before writing.
FACT: Majority of the admin are working hard to keep doctors in the service by giving us incentive to stay like scheme of service etc
FACT: The on-call allowance is already being worked on, it is up the the other ministry now
Please contact our colleagues who were involved in trying to make our working conditions better
The plea for on-call allowence has been going on for some years now, it is not something new. glad to hear it’s been worked on, after so many years of doing on-call, staying in the hospital, leaving my family at home, at last, we will get paid…..woohoo…..its up to the other ministry now…phew…. another 5 years to go. Thanks to the admin people for working so hard for us doctors.
The scheme of service is another wonderful news for the doctors. The local doctors are growing restless and many expressed their desire to leave (and many has left). There are many factors why this is so… not only because of the current payscale, but there is no future when we retire. There is not enough savings to support our young family when we retire (well, doctors tend to marry late and start their family late, right?) Another reason why the local doctors are unhappy is that, our contract colleagues are better treated compared to the locals for doing the same job and the same responsibility. (no disrespect to them though, they are doing a great job too)
Then we should follow the Singaporeans moto… Citizens comes first (as it should be). May be the new scheme of service is the answer. will it materialise? Well, that’s another matter isn’t it?
Food for thought!
Stop asking what the country is doing for me..
Start asking what am I doing for my country??
Progress starts with oneself, then the system…
The country has given me the chance to become who I am now.
So far I have no qualms in doing what I can for my country.
When you have a family and a mortgage, then you start to wonder about other oportunities. If only…
“Stop asking what the country is doing for me..
Start asking what am I doing for my country??”
A quote from JFK – when used in the appropriate context serves as an inspiration but when used in an inappropriate context or with an attachment “Progress starts with oneself, then the system…” is kind of a let-down as it means that the system has probably done all it can so go sort yourself out.