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21 July 2010
Sonal's Web Diary
I have now completed five weeks of my elective with only two more weeks to go. One month has been spent in Tan Tock Seng Hospital in studying cardiology. The remaining three weeks will be spent in Singapore General Hospital studying cardiothoracic surgery.
The hospitals here are very different compared to England; both in general lay out as well as patient demographics and patient attitude. The hospitals here are very big and clean and have lovely big food courts and coffee stands everywhere. Imagine my surprise when I walk into the hospital and see clothing boutiques, Starbucks, Subway and a local chain food court called the kopitiam within the main hospital lobby. This is the norm for Singapore hospitals, and sometimes people who aren’t patients, visitors or medical staff will go to the food court just to eat.
Patients here still predominantly speak Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay, Tamil and some speak English. This makes communication for those who do not speak any of the local dialects difficult and often involves having to ask other staff members for help in translating and taking a history.
Having been in Cardiology, I have noticed that a lot of the patients look relatively healthy on the outside, but are still coming in with coronary artery disease and other associated problems. The attitude towards medicine and compliance varies, however, I feel as if some of the older generation of patients do not try to understand their condition, and are non-compliant with their medication coming into hospital for a “quick fix”, if that is possible. This is not true for all patients, but comparing this to English patients I feel in general patients in England have and want a better understanding of their condition. However, Cardiology may be a speciality which deals with a slightly older age group, and this may be a reflection of that, so it is not fair to say that all of medicine in Singapore is like this as the newer generations are starting to come up. Another thing to bear in mind is that patients may believe in traditional Chinese medication and may chose just to stick to TCM or mix modern medicine with TCM.
After two more weeks of early surgical starts I will spend my last week in Singapore as a pure tourist catching up on the sights and sounds which I have not been able to cover as of yet. I hope everyone is enjoying their elective and summer holiday and I cannot wait to hear everyone else’s stories and see lots of beautiful pictures of their experiences abroad.
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