Dr. MC Hammer

About time we face up to the abuse of Medical Certificates, or more commonly known as MC in Malaysia. A local medical practitioner must have had enough of the nonsense to come up with the following letter to The Star:

Friday April 24, 2009
Don’t demand for MCs
I READ with amusement the news report on the sale of medical leave certificates. Having practised medicine for the last 25 years, nothing surprises me.

What a doctor knows is that when a person is feeling unwell, he consults a doctor to get a diagnosis and treatment to relieve his pain or discomfort. If he is too sick to work, he is issued an MC.

However, to many people these days, the whole purpose of going to the clinic is to get the MC. Regardless of whether they are sick or not.

Some patients demand an MC because their bosses told them to go to the clinic to get an MC and some patients even come at 4pm and demand an MC because they did not go to work in the morning which was eight hours earlier.

Some patients demand MC for two days for a slight runny nose that can be cured with one tablet and some do not want an MC on the day they see the doctor because they are already in the office but want an MC for the following day.

There are also those who want an MC because they are tired, not ill, and those who want MC but are not interested in what is wrong with them (the diagnosis) or the medicine.

I have had demands for MC over the phone. One innovative patient e-mailed me asking for an MC to be e-mailed back to him.

One human resources manager told his secretary to call my nurse to ask me to write him an MC and he will send one of his staff to come and collect it.

I have also come across patients coming in at 2pm for an MC for the day because they did not go to college to sit for an exam in the morning. If they produce an MC, their parents do not have to pay the exam fees for a re-sit.

And then one patient asked for two days MC on returning from a two-week European tour as she was too tired to work. She should have anticipated the jet lag and taken annual leave for two more days.

Without seeing the patient, we cannot issue an MC for him or her to stay home. What if he is having appendicitis or a brain haemorrhage, which he can die from if not attended to?

A doctor’s priority is to relieve suffering and save lives. What people fail to realise is that we are not there to spitefully obstruct them from getting a day’s rest if they are really indisposed. We are actually on their side but we have to be fair. I hope patients can read this, understand our position and refrain from challenging their doctors ethically and professionally.

OLD FASHIONED DOCTOR,
Kuala Lumpur.
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