is there a doctor in the house?

Today, there was a small insight by a columnist at the Oman Tribune about how inadequete the health system is to our doctors and in turn resulting in malpractice towards the patients because of the pressure excerted on the physicians.

According to the article, a lot of doctors (whether or not they are Omani is not mentioned) at our local hospitals are attending over 32 hours of continued shifts thus resulting to symptoms of utter fatigue, accidents at the emergency room whilst treating patients and poor performance of the doctors themselves. Some of them are even working 50 continuous hours in some departments.

These shifts not only endanger the lives of the patients and the doctors themselves, but also result in the doctors losing out on much needed rest with many of them having accumalated leave days over the years that are still to be spent away but can't get a moment's rest even when they are on holiday because they would be called in for emergencies.

An oath maybe something sacred that a doctor would need to take, but to be serious how would anyone expect a doctor to cope with that much pressure and still develop their skills and be at their top performance level at all times when they are very rarely given the chance to do so?

Something that has sadly been going on for several years here in Oman and is still yet to find a solution, unfortunately.

When will there be any action taken in this issue of utmost importance?

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Link:

- Doctors reveal their sorry plight