dear public,
i know lately, there are a lot of problems getting adequate medication from the government hospital's pharmacy. Yes, it is end of the year again. No doubt our store management may be a bit of unorganized, thus allowing the above matter surfaced and now critics are running uncontrollably wild among the public, some even said we had hoarded the medication out to the private pharmacies which is certainly 100% NOT TRUE.
First, i would like to apologize to all of you out there that we can not give you the full supply of medications. i am sorry that it had caused you all so much troubles to come to the pharmacy to and fro just to get may be a type or two of the nil in stock/ low in stock medication.
Then, i would like to talk about our feelings, yes, the front line pharmacist who dispensed medication to you all.
I believe that Malaysia is definitely a developing country. We are getting more knowledgeable nowadays but it does not mean that you all can be less respectful to others. After a year plus of servicing in the government hospital pharmacy, i am truly disappointed by how rude you people can be to the pharmacists.
1.) you come to us, yelling at us, demanding a faster waiting number because u had waited for hours for your regular follow up at your doctor.
Do you think it is fair? why don't you yell at your doctor because they keep you waiting for so long? why don't you just tell them off when they tell you that you need to come a week earlier before your real appointment for blood taking? just because they are diagnosing you, treating your illness and pharmacists are not?
do you know the process being done after receiving you prescription? i bet you don't.
from the moment we ask for your name, we started screening the prescription by identifying is this the right prescription for the right patient? then we send them to the filling counter. do you think our filling counters are all computerized that all medications just drop into the basket on a conveyor belt and label themselves and send to the dispensing counter? NO. it's all done manually!
the assist. pharmacists will need to take the prescription, running around the filling area to get all your medication into a basket, then label manually, counter checking the right medication, right dose, right dosage, screen for interaction, query if error found before the basket and the prescription reaches the dispensing counter.
then at the dispensing counter, do you want the pharmacist to just give you all your medication without explaining to you how to take them correctly? the dispensing pharmacist is the last counter check person that has to make sure that the medication dispensed to you are all right and safe. if you think you know all your medication, when something goes wrong, will you still not blame the pharmacist? first thing that come to your mind is, the pharmacist gave me the wrong medication. how unfair huh?
2.) you come to us, throwing at us your blood donation card saying you're a blood donor; OKU card while you are orienting perfectly and worst, you are collecting the medication on behalf of the real absent OKU; telling us you are an elderly and etc that you need an Express counter number.
let me tell you the truth, we don't give a damn to your blood donation card unless you just done donating your blood at our blood bank, show us your arms! OKU that can stand, walk, talk, doing everything perfectly, tell me which part of you is OKU? please respect the OKU card and use it correctly, don't abuse it! and to the elderly, i'm sorry, but you come to us, having more than 6 items on your prescription and you expect us to give you an express counter number? hello, more than 60% of the patients are elderly. so do you still want me to give you an express counter number?
i seriously think that everybody should reconsider the true definition of an express counter. it should be:
- for patients that just discharged from ward, they just got recovered and they need to get back home quicker than any of you
- pregnant lady's prescription and mother with a crying child's prescription
- prescription with less than 4 items
please do not come to us, expecting we can give you exception. No, no matter you are paying a million tax a year or you never pay even a cent of tax before, we treat you all the same. please bear in mind, even our specialists, consultants take number and queue up for their prescriptions.
3.) when we tell you we're sorry that we can only give you a two weeks supply of medication or worse still the medication is nil in stock, you ask us not to hide those medication. how ridiculous! why do we want to hide them? do you think they are sweets or vitamins that can be pop in by everybody?? and stop yelling at us that you're a pensioner, you're a teacher or whoever.
dear pensioner, we truly appreciate that you had done so much for the country, but please behave yourself. currently you're actually using the tax payer's money. i'm sorry that i have to say that. i had enough of similar encounters at the dispensing counter. "Do you know i'm a pensioner??" trust me, we often get that. to us, "So what?"
dear teachers, we all look up to teachers but sometimes your behavior is just jaw dropping. do more reading and research, and you will know that we, the pharmacist (esp the front liners) can not decide on which brand of medication to buy. if you insist to get that particular brand of eye drop or antihypertensive drug, kindly purchase it at the private pharmacies. you can not choose which brand you want because you aren't paying for that.
dear Datuks/ Datins/ Tan Sri and etc, sorry we do not have a special counter for you all. Kindly queue up normally and wait for your number to be called. thank you.
4.) after the incident of getting the newspaper to publish the shortage of medication in our hospital, the patients had becoming more and more rude each day. does scolding us Binatang (animals), calling us Bodoh (stupid), throwing numbers on our face, pointing your fingers yelling at us like nobody business make you feel better? do you think we feel good each time when we apologize? do you think that we can still have our lunch happily? NO, shortage of medication is not the front line pharmacists fault. they do not handle stock checking, purchasing! why do you choose to act like an illiterate when you can just pen down your complains? we feel guilty for not able to supply you the medication, but we are even more upset that you don't appreciate the pharmacist.
Malaysians, grow up. Look around and talk to your friends from overseas. Ask them how do they treat the pharmacists there. We are trying our best to give you the best service and what hinder us from that is your ignorance. We do not get extra pays or allowance from servicing you 24hours 7 days a week, the government don't pay us extra for weekends, for after office hour like what doctors have, NO! and do you know how many hours had we collected in our time-off book?? 100+ hours and the number of hours is still increasing. Thus, please, treat us well. don't make our life miserable.
I personally feel that there is still a long way, super duper long way to go before the Malaysia pharmacists able to get the dispensing right because the Malaysians themselves don't know the role of pharmacist and don't appreciate the pharmacist. basic courtesy and appreciation are what we need and what we want only.
* for those who still lives in the era of dinosaur, pharmacists nowadays are not just dispensing machines. we involve in ward rounds, running therapeutic drug monitoring, compounding total parenteral nutrition, cytotoxic drug reconstituting, drug information center, inpatient, manufacturing, supplying methadone, handling store, provide MTACs and etc. don't know what are they? google will be your best friend.
regards,
sinye
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