I have wondered so many times why a lot of successful doctors are leaving the country. Although I am still young in this profession and have not had that great desire to leave this country -- not just yet -- I feel worried that foregoing the opportunity to migrate abroad might turn out to be a decision that I will later regret. I'd often think, What did these older doctors experience later in their practices which made them decide to abandon it altogether?
Just tonight, I caught a glimpse of the answer to my question. I thought it was just a search for a greener pasture, a desire to give a better future for their children, or disgust for the present political climate in our country, but I think it is more than that. It is something more basic, something closer to the core of our being.
Just tonight, as I was busy making plans for the coming Conferment Ceremony and surfed the web for packages for video and photo coverages, I remembered the stupendous amount that the movie stars charge for their services. I heard that for one young actor, half day of picture shoots would amount to P80,000. Then I remembered those times when we did operations for patients for the same duration and I don't get half as much for professional fees. And I am dealing with LIVES here! Precious lives! Then I remembered how my husband would try to package professional fees so that it becomes very affordable for patients. And sometimes, he even feels cheated when he sees that the cellphones of the relatives of the patient cost three times the professional fee that he is charging! Now, looking at the packages of these videos and photos which costs three to four times our professional fees, I begin to wonder. Are we shortchanging ourselves as doctors?
I remembered that conversation I had with a businessman who said, "You, doctors are in a very noble profession, that is why it is sometimes disheartening when other doctors charge so much for their professional fees."
For some reason, something inside me rebelled about that idea. Something inside me was angered. Here I am in front of a man who charges quite a hefty sum for recreational activities and feels that it is justified since these people have the money to spend for such hobbies and yet points an accusing finger to us, doctors, when we charge the same amount for taking care of their health, of their lives. Did it not ever occur to him that just like him, we have our families to feed? Just like him, we have children to send to school? Just like him, we have rents and amortizations to pay? Just like him, we need financial security which we can hope to depend on when we can no longer work? But unlike him, we have to spend more than 20 years in school, being dependent on our parents, not being able to earn a decent income until we are in our late 30s or even 40s, spend gruelling hours trying to figure out the human body and even have to push marriage and building a family at a much later point in our lives. We have sacrificed so much for this noble profession because deep in us, there is that desire to serve others. Yet, should this sacrifice be bled out of us?
When we sent our application to our respective medical schools some years ago, it was not unusual to be asked, “Why are you taking up medicine?” It may sound like a cliché, one that will make our classmates snicker when we answered, "I wanted to become a doctor to serve others." Yet, we know deep in us, at the core of our being that it is a reason which we can never deny. Of course there are other much baser needs that crop up with this fundamental reason. Along the way, the much baser reasons become predominant and then we become practical beings. We realize that unlike those who join the religious congregation in order to serve others, we do not have a community who will support us. We have to support ourselves and our families. It is then, that the pressure of the material world sets in, because we are but mere mortals who also have to satisfy our basic needs for food, clothing and shelter, and on top of that, education, financial security and retirement funds. We, then realize that we have allowed ourselves to be burdened with so much pressure in our lives, with stress which is inherent in our profession because we deal with lives, that even as we go home, we still think of our patients or what's wrong with them. How come our interventions are not working. Have we made the wrong diagnosis? And, of course, if we could not figure out the problem then the patients and their relatives will again burden us with their expectations, which sometimes prove too much since, as I said, we are just mere mortals and not God. If something goes wrong, the hungry media and some unscrupulous lawyers are just too eager to point a finger to the "erring" doctor. But when we do get to succeed in our mission of providing healing to their ailing bodies, and we charge them with our professional fees, we could not charge too much because it would be unethical. Since we did something noble, we should not be paid too much lest the nobleness fades. But for those who feel that they are justified in asking for the amount that they charge, thinking that what can be more precious in a person's life but life itself, they receive the brunt of their patient's disgust. The patient gets shocked and feels resentment towards his doctor. All of a sudden, glares of accusation are thrown at him, obviously bearing the message, “How dare you, doctor, enrich yourself out of other people's sufferings!” Then he is confronted with market-price bargaining resembling that found in Divisoria, which makes him feel degraded and unappreciated.
That leads me back to my nostalgic thoughts of the professional fees of some movie stars who just needed to host an affair for one hour and gets paid P150,000. Not so for the cardiologist who took care of the patient for a week, the surgeon who operated for more than one hour, or for the anesthesiologist who paralyzed and ventilated the patient so that the surgery can be performed on the patient -- which of course, is just "putting the patient to sleep". How difficult and complicated can that be? No, we cannot charge as much as those movie stars. If only we could, a lot of us would be millionaires by now. Don’t get me wrong, though. I have nothing against movie stars. I am just saying that they are lucky that society is more tolerant of them charging huge professional fees.
Now, I no longer wonder why doctors leave the country. There is just too much pressure placed on their shoulders, that at one point in their busy, successful career, they just wanted to be out. To breathe some fresh air. To slow down. To be out of the rat race.To have that lifestyle with the promise of more quality in their lives.
Besides, there is no pension plan for doctors here. You can still find doctors way beyond their retirement years walking along the corridors of the hospitals, with silver hairs, or worst, faltering gaits. For some, it is a matter of survival. You stop working, you stop earning. You stop earning, you stop living the lifestyle that you got used to. For others, retirement is simply not an option. They have been in the profession for too long. To be uprooted from this environment is like uprooting a plant and letting it die. I have seen how some deteriorated and wilted like a plant just after retirement. They had their entire lives revolving around their noble profession that they find themselves useless without it. Others are forced into retirement by some disabling disease like stroke, myocardial infarction, or Alzheimer's. Then depression sets in. Perhaps this is the scenario that some doctors wanted to avoid in their future lives, that is why they are taking control of it while they still can.
For me, there is no judgment here, because I think I now caught a glimpse of what's going on in these doctor's heads. And perhaps even in my own head? My apologies to those whose heads do not contain these thoughts.
Nagsesenti lang po, kasi nagsisisi akong di ako nag-artista!
(Translation: I am merely venting because I regret not pursuing a career in the movie industry!)
Just tonight, I caught a glimpse of the answer to my question. I thought it was just a search for a greener pasture, a desire to give a better future for their children, or disgust for the present political climate in our country, but I think it is more than that. It is something more basic, something closer to the core of our being.
Just tonight, as I was busy making plans for the coming Conferment Ceremony and surfed the web for packages for video and photo coverages, I remembered the stupendous amount that the movie stars charge for their services. I heard that for one young actor, half day of picture shoots would amount to P80,000. Then I remembered those times when we did operations for patients for the same duration and I don't get half as much for professional fees. And I am dealing with LIVES here! Precious lives! Then I remembered how my husband would try to package professional fees so that it becomes very affordable for patients. And sometimes, he even feels cheated when he sees that the cellphones of the relatives of the patient cost three times the professional fee that he is charging! Now, looking at the packages of these videos and photos which costs three to four times our professional fees, I begin to wonder. Are we shortchanging ourselves as doctors?
I remembered that conversation I had with a businessman who said, "You, doctors are in a very noble profession, that is why it is sometimes disheartening when other doctors charge so much for their professional fees."
For some reason, something inside me rebelled about that idea. Something inside me was angered. Here I am in front of a man who charges quite a hefty sum for recreational activities and feels that it is justified since these people have the money to spend for such hobbies and yet points an accusing finger to us, doctors, when we charge the same amount for taking care of their health, of their lives. Did it not ever occur to him that just like him, we have our families to feed? Just like him, we have children to send to school? Just like him, we have rents and amortizations to pay? Just like him, we need financial security which we can hope to depend on when we can no longer work? But unlike him, we have to spend more than 20 years in school, being dependent on our parents, not being able to earn a decent income until we are in our late 30s or even 40s, spend gruelling hours trying to figure out the human body and even have to push marriage and building a family at a much later point in our lives. We have sacrificed so much for this noble profession because deep in us, there is that desire to serve others. Yet, should this sacrifice be bled out of us?
When we sent our application to our respective medical schools some years ago, it was not unusual to be asked, “Why are you taking up medicine?” It may sound like a cliché, one that will make our classmates snicker when we answered, "I wanted to become a doctor to serve others." Yet, we know deep in us, at the core of our being that it is a reason which we can never deny. Of course there are other much baser needs that crop up with this fundamental reason. Along the way, the much baser reasons become predominant and then we become practical beings. We realize that unlike those who join the religious congregation in order to serve others, we do not have a community who will support us. We have to support ourselves and our families. It is then, that the pressure of the material world sets in, because we are but mere mortals who also have to satisfy our basic needs for food, clothing and shelter, and on top of that, education, financial security and retirement funds. We, then realize that we have allowed ourselves to be burdened with so much pressure in our lives, with stress which is inherent in our profession because we deal with lives, that even as we go home, we still think of our patients or what's wrong with them. How come our interventions are not working. Have we made the wrong diagnosis? And, of course, if we could not figure out the problem then the patients and their relatives will again burden us with their expectations, which sometimes prove too much since, as I said, we are just mere mortals and not God. If something goes wrong, the hungry media and some unscrupulous lawyers are just too eager to point a finger to the "erring" doctor. But when we do get to succeed in our mission of providing healing to their ailing bodies, and we charge them with our professional fees, we could not charge too much because it would be unethical. Since we did something noble, we should not be paid too much lest the nobleness fades. But for those who feel that they are justified in asking for the amount that they charge, thinking that what can be more precious in a person's life but life itself, they receive the brunt of their patient's disgust. The patient gets shocked and feels resentment towards his doctor. All of a sudden, glares of accusation are thrown at him, obviously bearing the message, “How dare you, doctor, enrich yourself out of other people's sufferings!” Then he is confronted with market-price bargaining resembling that found in Divisoria, which makes him feel degraded and unappreciated.
That leads me back to my nostalgic thoughts of the professional fees of some movie stars who just needed to host an affair for one hour and gets paid P150,000. Not so for the cardiologist who took care of the patient for a week, the surgeon who operated for more than one hour, or for the anesthesiologist who paralyzed and ventilated the patient so that the surgery can be performed on the patient -- which of course, is just "putting the patient to sleep". How difficult and complicated can that be? No, we cannot charge as much as those movie stars. If only we could, a lot of us would be millionaires by now. Don’t get me wrong, though. I have nothing against movie stars. I am just saying that they are lucky that society is more tolerant of them charging huge professional fees.
Now, I no longer wonder why doctors leave the country. There is just too much pressure placed on their shoulders, that at one point in their busy, successful career, they just wanted to be out. To breathe some fresh air. To slow down. To be out of the rat race.To have that lifestyle with the promise of more quality in their lives.
Besides, there is no pension plan for doctors here. You can still find doctors way beyond their retirement years walking along the corridors of the hospitals, with silver hairs, or worst, faltering gaits. For some, it is a matter of survival. You stop working, you stop earning. You stop earning, you stop living the lifestyle that you got used to. For others, retirement is simply not an option. They have been in the profession for too long. To be uprooted from this environment is like uprooting a plant and letting it die. I have seen how some deteriorated and wilted like a plant just after retirement. They had their entire lives revolving around their noble profession that they find themselves useless without it. Others are forced into retirement by some disabling disease like stroke, myocardial infarction, or Alzheimer's. Then depression sets in. Perhaps this is the scenario that some doctors wanted to avoid in their future lives, that is why they are taking control of it while they still can.
For me, there is no judgment here, because I think I now caught a glimpse of what's going on in these doctor's heads. And perhaps even in my own head? My apologies to those whose heads do not contain these thoughts.
Nagsesenti lang po, kasi nagsisisi akong di ako nag-artista!
(Translation: I am merely venting because I regret not pursuing a career in the movie industry!)
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