Friday, June 22, 2007
What's Up, Doc.?
Ahhh... Finally the end of the week. I'm just enjoying the peaceful Friday night slurping on yoghurt and of course, tuning to some Bossa tracks. I'm glad that I'm finally working rather than slack around in front of the TV. The only drawback of working is I can't really exercise as much as I want or used to.
In any case, a new guy came around today - through a recruitment agency - and coincidentally he's my classmate in primary school. What a surprise. It's been eons since I've last seen him (right about 10 years).
Working in a hospital, besides the monotonous work, I can't seem to keep my mind off the morbid imaginations that simultaneously pop into my mind as I sieve through patients' folders. One colleague who handles incoming and updating of new clinical reports was quite taken aback when he observed that most of the incoming cases were cancer related. Come to think of it, I thought cancer IS the top killer disease in Singapore? Oh well. Another thing which bothers me is the thickness of the folders; they can range from very thin (with just a couple of documents inside) to 6-10 folders patient, each 1 inch thick. I can only sympathise - if not empathise with - the patients. Moreover, medical fees definitely pile up proportionately with the stack of folders. With so many folers, it's not surprising to change upon folders of people whom you may know.
It's the 4th day since I've started and today I was asked to assist another permanent staff to trace folders to be sent to the hospital clinics for upcoming appointments. Searching halfway, and delighted at finding another folder off the dusty steel cabinet, I doublechecked the name. To my surprise, it happened to be my secondary school chemistry teacher's folder. I wasted no time in reading the contents (I threw away Integrity at that time in favour of kaypohism) but my efforts were continuously thwarted by other people passing by. After countless trials, I gave up. Damn.
Well, I think it was quite exciting to find a folder of someone I knew. At least it gave me a little tiny boost of morale. Imagine having to ferret out about only 200 folders each day out of at least 2 million folders! Sometimes the files are not arranged properly and some cabinets are filled to the brim, some spilling onto the ground and some laying on the top of the entire steel cabinet. There is an organised filing system - just insufficient space for more cabinets. But it seems to have worked well all these years, so no one's complaining much.
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