I wonder if this was normal for them?
My sis received her posting letter pretty late if compared to her friends. The letter mentioned that she is to report in for duty to JKN Kelantan on 16 Oct(Fri). As the letters were sent by KKM in bulk, she has to call the state office to confirm the reporting date since it is holiday in Kelantan (Friday is an offday in Kelantan). The officer asked her to report in on Monday, 19 Oct.
My mum and I accompanied my sister there. We left for Kelantan on Sunday. On Monday morning, we headed to the Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri(JKN) Kelantan at Wisma Persekutuan. She was there to report to the state authority. Family and spouses were kept waiting outside while the newly transfered pharmacists were directed to the meeting room. An officer walked in at close to 9am and deliver his welcoming speech. After a winding speech, they were told by the officer that their transfer to the state were not made known to the JKN Kelantan, hence nothing has been arranged for them. Anyway, they were asked to report to the Jabatan Farmasi at Pengkalan Chepa.
So we rushed to the Jabatan Farmasi, hoping that her placement is based on 'First Come, First Serve Basis'. It took us approximately 15 minutes to get there but we were kept waiting long. The newly reporting pharmacists were kept waiting in the meeting room again while parents and spouses were all waiting outside.
While we were waiting, the officers were busy...busy dilly dally, chatting and moving in and out of 'dewan makan'. They were all busy with their Jamuan Hari Raya I supposed. So we could only wait, wait and wait only.
Finally at close to 11 o'clock, one of the newbie's mother who is a doctor, started to 'mengamuk'. Complained to the officers impatiently. Thanks to her mother, finally the 'Penolong Pengarah' went into the meeting room to meet the newbies. Another round of winding lectures, they were told that the department was not prepared for their transfer in. So they were asked to wait till after the placement list being endosed in thier Wednesday department meeting and letter would be out by Thursday morning.
My sisters and her new colleagues asked what should they do before they know their placement and guess what he replied? He said something like this, "Kamu kena datang ke office seperti biasa dan buat apa yang sepatutnya." ...puzzled, 'What can pharmacists do sitting in the meeting room together all day?'
Since we were there with May, she decided to take a few days leave and only return to office on Thursday to get her posting letters while we could venture and discover Kota Bharu.
However on the Tuesday evening, she learnt about the posting decision was out from her friends....didn't the officer mentioned that the list would be out no earlier than Wednesday? the meeting got brought forward, canceled or what :-( My sister and WT were sent to Hospital Machang, in a small and slow pace town. What worsen their emotion was when they discovered X( a 'he') actually got posted to Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II. X met up with the officer personally and told the officer that he was a first class honour student and it would be a waste to send him to those hospitals in rural area...well well, I didn't know that the results would matter even after working for a year. Ridiculous!
There were a lot other factors that the officer could take into consideration...gender and distance from the newbies hometown, and the past year performance were more important in my opinion...or to be fair, just do a random draw. Again this prove that in Kelantan, officers were super inefficient and their words could not be taken seriously.
So on Wednesday morning, my sister and WT went to the office to collect their letters and to appeal the department's decision. It was pretty tough for girls to start off their life in an alien rural area. They didn't get to meet the officer. According to his asst., he was away in Johor and would only be back few days later...trying to hide away ya?
My sis and WT have no other choices but to report to Hospital Machang as being commanded. Hospital Machang...physically, the hospital compound was big but the number of patience was low. The bed occupancy was low, approximately at 50%. There were 4 doctors and guess how many phamacist they have. There were 6 pharmacist.
1 hospital : 4 doctors : 6 pharmacists
Given the doctor pharmacist ratio was 1 : 1.5. Crazy! More pharmacist than doctors!!!!!!!!!!!!! This huge hospital was
UNDERUTILIZed and OVERSTAFFed.
They have been hinted that working there was pretty easy...'boleh bergoyang kaki'....
However big the hospital was, there was no quarter for them two. My sis and WT were initially promised a quarter, so we didn't bother to hunt for house elsewhere since the quarter looks fine but later were to receive call from the hospital staff saying that they have overlooked. That huge quarter must be emptied and reserved for another soon to join doctor. Damn...'sekejap boleh, sekejap tak boleh'.
With this kind of management and attitude, Malaysia's public healthcare sector can never progress and we people are going to suffer.
Signing off,
Poor Malaysian
