Write to Thelma, not POTS

Dear POTS,

I write because I have been told that you can help.

I have been told that you have ways and means to eventually get things done your way, even bypassing the State Health Department and preventing the promotion of a HINDRAF-like character to the post of hospital director.

I am currently working with a 40-year-old MO. She is arrogant, rude and utterly stupid in terms of medical knowledge.

She shows no compassion to patients and sucks up to the boss for protection.

I try my best to practise evidence-based medicine in order to do justice for the patients under my care.

She on the other hand, practises opinion-based medicine.

Needless to say, her opinions are as good as that of a chronic MO who has tried but failed her specialty examinations.

I am outraged at the nonsense care that the patients are receiving under her care.

We even quarrel publicly in front of house officers and patients.

Please advise.


With warmest regards,

SICK OF P.I.S


Dear SOP,

I wonder why you write to me and not Thelma.

Thelma offers much better advice, especially in sensationalized sexacapes of horny Malaysian men.

My reputation is overrated - I did make life hell for a college warden back in 6th College, University Malaya by putting her ugly face on Friendster.

Apart from that, I have no great tales and achievements to boast of.

You must have mistaken me for a close friend of mine.

Anyway, I honestly believe that this monster of a colleague is not worth your time and calories.

Malaysia unfortunately, is full of such characters – people who should never have been doctors and could never have been doctors under a different system.

Do not argue with this 40-year-old spinster – you are merely wasting your saliva.

The hardest thing to change in this world is a person’s character and if I were you, I would not even try to.

Your colleague is probably suffering from low self esteem for reasons that are obvious – her failure to pass examinations, her ageing body, free-falling stock value and impending menopause.

I can give you ideas on how to play mean pranks on your enemies and make their lives miserable but that would not solve your differences with her, wouldn’t it?

Furthermore, I am trying to turn over a new leaf and just be at total peace and calm, not unlike an ostrich with its head in the sand.

You can write to the Malaysian Medical Council if you think your colleague is professionally incompetent but from personal experience, I think your time would be better off spent flying kites and watching paint dry.

I am sorry if I were not of much help.

Sincerely,

POTS

P/S: What is P.I.S?