Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to work for another (sometimes called “the master” or “slave owner”). Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation (such as wages) in return for their labor.
- from the Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
When I started on my residency training, I’ve already expected that the freedom I used to have (being in control of work schedule) for 3 years since I’ve had my license to practice medicine, would be gone. I’ve expected that I’ll be spending most of my time almost living inside the hospital and most of my thoughts will be turned to reading medical books, specialty journals, untangling patients’ dilemmas, and understanding the politics of hospital training. I’ve seen more than glimpses of such a life when I was a medical clerk and also when I got into internship. Mentally and physically, I know I’m more than prepared to undertake such training.
But it comes as a great unfortunate surprise to me to learn that even the supposed intelligent and educated doctors can be swallowed whole by a corrupt system. I think the more senior doctors should have felt some empathy for the younglings and would have understood our plight better than anyone else in the hospital because they’ve gone through it before too. And as expected from those who had seen it before, it only comes logically that they should know how to improve the plight of the young ones. And yet, here they are, party to the same corrupt system that only puts unnecessary burden on us. And not only that, they feel arrogant enough to do it, even if seeing it as wrong, but justifying it still because they feel “it’s the only way left to do to accomplish what was needed”.
I’ve started residency training in December last year. Supposedly, we have a meager allowance we can receive every 2 weeks. However, I’ve only received my allowance for the last 2 weeks of February. No allowance received from December to first 2 weeks of February. And now, the admin is holding our March allowance (including meal allowance) because of a number of discharge summaries that we have yet to fill up. Holding back that allowance means that I, as a medical resident, will still be expected to go to the hospital to work everyday for a number of x hours everyday and will still go on 24-hours duty every 3 days, will still update and call consultants regarding their patients with cellphone load out of our own pockets, even if we don’t have money to support our daily living because these arrogant men and women think that all of us are being supported by rich parents and wouldn’t mind not having salaries. And yes, they’re holding back our meager allowances, which are even less than what entry level call center agents are getting, because of charts they expect us to fill up on top of attending to all patients in the hospital, performing the duties of interns even if we’re already residents because the hospital cannot entice enough graduates to apply, to preparing and attending conferences, to stay in the hospital after office hours even when not on duty and more. All of those they expect from us, medical residents, even if we don’t have money to support ourselves.
And why are they doing this to us? I think I heard someone from up there say it’s “the only way to motivate us to do our work”. WTF?!
Approaching it from all angles, I must say that, at the risk of being accused of exaggeration, all I see is “SLAVERY” written all over.
I’m wondering if resident physicians in other hospitals do experience this too.
I’m outraged and with not enough finances, I know I cannot take this up the legal route and all I could manage to do is to the suffer and wait. But, fuck, looking up all available materials, I don’t think I’ve ever found anything in the law that says hospitals can do this to their residents.
Here’s something I’ve snipped from the Labor Code of the Philippines:
Art. 83. Normal hours of work. The normal hours of work of any employee shall not exceed eight (8) hours a day.
Health personnel in cities and municipalities with a population of at least one million (1,000,000) or in hospitals and clinics with a bed capacity of at least one hundred (100) shall hold regular office hours for eight (8) hours a day, for five (5) days a week, exclusive of time for meals, except where the exigencies of the service require that such personnel work for six (6) days or forty-eight (48) hours, in which case, they shall be entitled to an additional compensation of at least thirty percent (30%) of their regular wage for work on the sixth day. For purposes of this Article, “health personnel” shall include resident physicians, nurses, nutritionists, dietitians, pharmacists, social workers, laboratory technicians, paramedical technicians, psychologists, midwives, attendants and all other hospital or clinic personnel…
Clearly, my work hours exceeds the “8 hours a day, 5 days a week” stated. However, I do remember something in the contract I’ve signed that I’m allowing the hospital to make a work schedule that exceeds the time stated, even in short notice. But I’m sure that nowhere in the contract was stated that the hospital can withold salaries as penalty for not being able to fulfill certain work.
I’ve also noticed that in the entire length of the Labor Code, there are only few paragraphs that pertain to the health workers. And this makes me wonder, why nobody has done something about it? Why were doctors who had been in training before me had been satisfied with these vague laws regarding their employment? What has the PMA done about it in the past? Why isn’t it doing anything about it now?
I could go on about the many problems I’ve noticed seen the beginning of the training program. However, honestly, I’m in fear that I might lose this slot in the program if I continue to divulge and criticize. And perhaps, maybe the same fear have taken hold many of the doctors who were in residency training before me and must be the primary reason why nobody voiced out that doctors needed clearer laws regarding their employment.
At this point, I don’t know if I could proceed my inquiry further, without endangering my own career. The only feasible plan is to patiently suffer, finish the program, and then, when I’m already out of the institution, do something to help the younger, future residents. But my guess is that maybe other residents have thought of the same plan and have not succeeded. Was it perhaps because the system was too formidable it cannot be challenged? Or was it because this fraternity-like system has worked in the field of medicine for so long that it’s so much difficult to enlighten everybody else that there could be another way, another system?
I thought slavery has been outlawed in almost all institutions in the world. But then, I guess it can exist in various forms, even in what is supposedly a freethinking world such as Medicine.
PBA090on28sp
Tags: hospital slavery, residency training, resident physician, slavery
