It's About Time

On the front page of weekend Today was the report on making it a legal offence for a HIV-carrier to have sex with an unknowing victim. The current law only penalises those who are already identified to be HIV-positive but knowingly withold this knowledge from people participating in sexual activities with him/her. With the new clause, anybody who participates in high-risk sexual activities is punishable by law if he/she passes HIV on to another person regardless of the HIV carrier's knowledge or ignorance of his/her HIV status. Person found guilty of breaching the law will be fined $50000 and/or jailed for up to 10 yrs.

I think this is a welcomed change in the law to make people who choose to participate in high-risk sexual activities to be legally responsible for their actions. Why this law was not introduced earlier to protect the innocent I do not understand, but better late than never. With the new law, those who participate in high risk activites will be forced to do more regular blood tests and are no longer allowed to feign ignorance as a means to escape punishment.

Bioterrorism In the Making

I was chatting with a retail assistant (RA) from the main pharmacy last week when I heard about a horrifying incident. The RA was checking the stocks on the shop floor when she noticed this elderly patient standing near the shelves selling syringes and needles for diabetes use. As the patient looked a little suspicious the RA decided to observe her.

If you were thinking that the patient tried stealing the needles you were wrong. She did something even more terrible. Whilst still keeping the syringes in the packet, the patient twisted off the cap of the syringe to expose the needle and then proceed to poke the needle through the plastic package and then her finger to test the needle. After that she capped the needle and was about to place the packet back on the shelf when the RA approached her, telling her she had to buy the packet of syringes as she had already "tried" one of them. In fact blood was present on the packet and the patient's pricked finger.

According to the RA this was not an isolated incident and one of the cashier actually had a needle stick injury as a result. What I do not understand is why the patients do such things. Have they any idea the implication of trying needles?! If a HIV/ hepatitis B carrier tried the needles and placed them back for another to buy, that person would have become infected and not because he/she is at fault. Rather it is due to the sheer stupidity of a fellow human being.

My take on this: if you ever need to buy needles, buy the full box. Make sure the box is sealed with no tampering. Better to waste the money than to waste your life.

Did Lee Hsien Loong Ever Said Such a Thing?!

Wanted to blog this sooner, but been getting home quite late and was watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and playing online games most of the time I was logged in to the internet. Anyway, this incident is but a couple days' old so it is still quite fresh.

What happened was this man came with his maid to collect medicine. Medicine was for the maid so I obviously could not ask her for NRIC number. I did what a person with commonsense would do: ask for the work permit. The employer got huffy and asked why I wanted to check the work permit when the registration counter already checked the work permit. For identification purpose you idiot! Do I look like I am on first name terms with you and your maid?! I need to make sure I am dispensing the correct medication to the correct person.

Anyway to cut the chase, when I requested payment for the medication, the employer told me his maid did not have money. He almost did not want to pay for his maid's medication until I told him flatly that I could not give free medicine because the hospital is not a charitable organisation. I can let them have the medicine and send the bill later, but that does not mean I will do it every time. Correction. I am usually lenient to foreign workers the first time they tell me they do not have sufficient money. I would send the bill to their companies, but I would also remind them to either bring sufficient money or a letter of guarantee from their company the next time. However, should they try to get free medicine from me the second time they are only going to get 3 days' worth of medication. Nothing more until they pay up.

Back to the stupid man. After he grudgingly paid up for the medicine, he asked me if I am going to deny medicine to patients who are poor and have no money for their medicine. If the patients are really poor, there are ways to help them eg. getting their doctors to make a recommendation to see a medical social worker and apply for financial aids, usually Medifund.

It was a poor attempt at trying to draw parallelism between poor citizens and his maid. His maid is holding a work permit, and to hold a work permit means the maid must be holding a job in Singapore. If she does not even have money for medicine that cost less than $10 then he is either not paying her or not giving her a decent enough pay.

After hearing my little explanation on how poor people can get funds to help them with their medicine, he haughtily told me he would bring his maid to see a medical social worker to get the Medifund. This man is really stupid. Medifund is for citizens, not foreign workers! However, that is not to say the government does not care for the foreign workers working in Singapore. Currently foreign workers do enjoy some subsidy from the government when they seek medical treatment at polyclinics, restructured hospitals and some of the private clinics. This unfortunately is not going to last. After all which government does not protect its own citizens first. With limited resources, it is natural for our government to reserve the subsidy for Singaporeans rather than foreign workers. In the process of doing that the government also tries to make sure foreign workers continue to have affordable medical care. And this is why the government is working out a bill to make it compulsory for employers to provide healthcare insurance coverage for foreign workers under their employment.

The twit when told his maid does not qualify for Medifund whined that it is not fair for the foreign workers. He then tried his stupid parallelism trick again. This time he asked me how would I feel if I am overseas on holiday and something happens which resulted in me being hospitalised, and the hospital denies treatment because I have no money, and no passport for identification. Well, that will never happen because I never travel overseas without insurance to cover my arse.

What came next was the most ridiculous thing I had heard thus far, and I am going to quote what transpired between me and him. Words in italics are my thoughts/ comments.

Idiot: You know that who ah, Lee Kuan Yew's son? The prime minister?

Me: Lee Hsien Loong. You call yourself a Singaporean but don't know the name of our current PM?! And you still dare to talk to me in such a haughty attitude?!

Idiot: Yah, Lee Hsien Loong. Two and a half years ago in one of his speeches, he said nothing in this world is free (pause for dramatic effect), except healthcare. And that is according to WHO standards.

Me: (sarcastically) Really. I have not heard of it. Start using your brain if you want to convince me that Lee Hsien Loong, henceforth abbreviated to LHL, would ever say such a stupid thing on national TV. It is because we are now on the issue of healthcare that you claim LHL said healthcare should be free. If you are in NTUC you would claim LHL said nothing in this world is free except food! And don't bring the WHO into this. Anybody with a brain knows that providing free healthcare is the surest way to bring down the whole healthcare system. And unless you don't mind the government increasing the personal income tax by another 10-20 percentage point, and GST to 10% or more, do not even talk to me about free healthcare nor subsidising all medicines for subsidised patients.

Idiot: You never heard of it? He said that. LHL said healthcare should be free. In fact I owe the hospital $300+ in bill. I never paid up. I send all my bills to him.

Me: (raised an eyebrow) You send your bills to LHL? Way to go bugger. Such a typical Singaporean attitude. Throw all the problems to the government instead of taking ownership and solving the problem yourself.

Idiot: (haughtily) Yah. I send all my bills to LHL. I annexed all the bills to him so he can pay them for me.

Me: (Gave a mirthless snigger) Right... I am sure it gets thrown out with the daily trash before it even has a chance to reach LHL's secretary much less LHL.

Luckily i had another prescription to dispense. Gave me the opportunity to walk away without appearing rude.

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As a side note:

1. I know I defended our government a fair bit in this post, but I do not support PAP.


2. PM Lee, if you ever have the time to surf the net and come across this post, can I make a small request? No not pay my internet and phone bills. Satisfy my curiosity. I want to know if you ever helped the idiot pay his hospital bills. LOL

Back to Slamming the Stupid

I am back to slamming the ばかもの(idiots).

This stupid patient came to my counter during peak hour and told me he was in a hurry so he needed his medicine right away. Told him to take a queue number and take a seat first while I process the prescription, but he continued standing at my counter, holding on to this prescription, telling me he needed his medicine immediately.

Look you stupid, the medicine is not going to drop from the sky when you pass me the prescription. I. Need. Time. To. Process. The. Prescription. Told him again to take the number and to take a seat first. He then said he is in a hurry and if I cannot give him the medicine then he will not be collecting the medicine. That really pissed me off and I tore off the queue number, gave him back the prescription telling him there is no way I can give him the medicine immediately as I need time to process the prescription.

What came next really made me want to shove the prescription down his throat. He asked me why I could not give him his medicine right away. Just exactly how difficult was it to understand that I NEED TIME TO PROCESS THE PRESCRIPTION?!! Oh, and for your information, this guy is serving national service. Maybe SAF needs to consider grading the IQ of eligible male citizens before drafting them for national service. I have serious doubts that this guy can follow simple orders. He is probably one of those who always gets the whole troop into trouble due to his stupidity, and I shudder to think that we have to rely on such people to protect us in times of war.

Sometimes They Make You Smile

I'm reflecting on what I have done for the past 3+ yrs as a pharmacist, and thinking back on the patients that I have counseled. Though I mostly ranted and raved about the stupid patients, I never did mention those who made me smile or those whose actions touched me. They do exist, mind you, so this post is dedicated to them.

I thank you when you offered to buy me tea as a sign of appreciation of the effort I put into counseling you on your medication and to write down all the instructions in Chinese so you can understand your medicine better.

I thank you when out of concern you asked me if I had my lunch and looked appalled when I told you I still had not had lunch at 3PM.

I thank you when you patiently waited for me to dispense your child's discharge medicine. When I apologised for making you wait till 2PM, I felt tears in my eyes when you said, "It's okay, I know you are alone in running all the pediatric wards."

I want to laugh when you side with me against the stupid patients and whispered to me as if we were in some conspiracy some gossips about the stupid patients.

I appreciate it when you help us scold the unreasonable patients.

I thank you when you tell me to take my time to process your prescription because there are many items to pack.

I am touched that you always greet me by my name and ask me how my day is or how I have been.

I want to laugh when you tell me your IC number the moment you appear at my counter without me asking for it. You grin from ear to ear feeling triumphant because you have anticipated what I wanted to ask.

All in all, thank you for making my job little more bearable after being tortured by the tons of stupid patients. You keep me sane. :)