One thing I do not like with being away from your normal work routine ( in our case, out from the clinics and hospital) even if to take a short vacation (as side trip with your out of town seminars) would be the accumulated load you are facing head on once you've arrived back.
I had actually requested a colleague with the same specialty I have to relieve me in my clinic to make it easy for my patients to cope in my absence (especially to aide them with their medical needs while I was away). I arrived late Sunday.
I was however still deluged yesterday (Monday) with patients in my OPD consults that I finished quite late (past 9 pm). I asked my secretary why this is so, "Didn't the patients who came in during the days I was gone consult my reliever?" Her answer was a "no", they said they would just come back when I arrive.
I felt quite flattered with this due to their overwhelming trust but then again I began to sigh, "What would I do, it'll be our annual convention in Manila next week (for 4 days)? We are also like students, we are having our attendance checked for our CME units, and being delinquent will deter our chances to secure that certificate of good standing which we need badly as a requirement for accreditation as a Philhealth medical provider (Philhealth happens to be the National Health Insurance Program here in the Philippines). So being absent there and staying in our clinic to see patients ( yep our patients would prefer this) and earning too ( yep I would like this :) ) is really not an option.
That's what makes us doctors (some employed, especially the government workers and most the self-employed specialist) different from the enlightened entrepreneurs and the investors when it comes to providing services and building wealth. We may have comparatively greater income/ professional fees than a laborer and maybe some professionals but we do have to be always physically present to earn our daily bread. And the image patients have of their doctors are that they should be and look well-to-do.
Many patients would even equate the doctor's clinical competence with how he/she dresses, the car he uses when he comes to the clinic/ hospital, and even where they live. It would be rare for a class A or B patient to entrust their medical condition to a dude who rents and lives in a socialized housing community and who commutes to his clinic with a plain T shirt and jean type trousers to boot. Nope, that's why physicians also invest in their appearance and over all appeal so they make good impressions too to everyone. And yes, that involves spending for it.
In my next post, I would like to share something I read a few years back with regards to the four different groups of people with regards to wealth generation. Why did I bring this up when we are talking about the noble profession of medicine? That would also be answered in my next post...
" A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."-- Henry David Thoreau, naturalist
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