Sunday, November 11, 2007

A Tiny Flame

Somebody, obviously too scared to name him/herself, recently left an anonymous comment on my blog saying I am stupid not to help a patient's son. Link to that post is here.

Quoting his/her comment:
i think you are stupid and the customer is right. singaporeans in general cannot think independently and are basically slaves to procedures and have lost the ability to think creatively. i'm wondering why one cannot call the doctor, get him to write a new prescription and fax it if possible? surely it is on his records...furthermore, if it is on his records, then that is all you need to satisfy your records...give the medicine to the patient and pharmacist and doctor can work it out while the patient receives meds. regardless, there is something that collectively can be figured it. so yeah, it is stupid...only stupid on your part. but then again, after living in singapore for a number of years i would expect no more and no less then a scared or uncaring attitude instead of a helpful one...uniquely singapore :)

All this just proves you are as stupid as the patient's son. Good job. Your vocabulary is obviously lacking if you do not even understand the word legal. You also obviously have no aptitude when it comes to comprehension.

Go to this link to understand what it means by legal.

Let's dissect your comment.

"Why one cannot call the doctor, get him to write a new prescription and fax it if possible?" One, you do not call the doctor regarding a patient he saw a few months back. A hospital doctor sees many patients in one day, you do not expect the doctors to remember patients they saw a few months back when they cannot even remember who they saw a couple of days back. Besides, I would not know who wrote the prescription for the patient, we happen to have more than one doctor working in the hospital. Two, a faxed prescription is not legal for obvious reasons such as a high likelihood of forgery etc. But of course you, though not a Singaporean, obviously cannot think creatively as well and I do not expect you to arrive at the above reasonings.

"Surely it is on his records...furthermore, if it is on his records, then that is all you need to satisfy your records...give the medicine to the patient and pharmacist and doctor can work it out while the patient receives meds." I have already mentioned those records are to facilitate work processes. The law does not require us to keep a record of the patient's medicine history, but it does say a copy of the dispensed prescription must be kept in the possession of the pharmacy for 2 years before destruction. The prescription is required to satisfy the law, NOT the records.

"After living in Singapore for a number of years I would expect no more and no less then a scared or uncaring attitude instead of a helpful one." Scared? Nay, you are sorely mistaken. Any pharmacist, in Singapore or overseas, would protect their license, because we need to go through 4 years of grueling university coursework, pass our forensic (law) exam, go through another year of internship before we can qualify to apply for a pharmacist license. After all the time, sweat, and money spent do you think I would do something that blatantly flouts the law, then get my license revoked? I am not the stupid one here. You are. As for "uncaring" and "unhelpful", did I mention earlier you are lacking in your comprehension faculty? It was in my post that I arranged for the clinic to get another doctor to write the prescription. One thing I did not mention was that I offered to arrange for the medicine to be delivered as the patient's son said he did not have the time to wait for the doctor to write the prescription then pick up the medicine. So much for being "uncaring" and "unhelpful".

"Uniquely Singapore." Ain't got anything to do with being uniquely Singapore. More like you and the patient's son are "uniquely stupid". :)