A lot of people think that it’s great to have children who are doctors and that they will earn loads of money. It’s also increases the “social status” of the family as well.

Yet, we all do forget that doctors have a higher responsibility. More than the normal person because he/she would have to serve the community. I never knew this but doctors are obligated to answer any calls/inquiries requested by the public. That he/she cannot turn it down in the eyes of the law. Where is this? In the Sarawak Labour Ordinance as well as the Labour Act. Because they fall under the category of managing life and death situations for the community, they have a huge obligation to serving the public. Even the politicians do not have it this tough.

So, if a doctor has prescribe the wrong medication, who does the checks on the doctors? In Malaysia, we tend to shy away from actual confrontation and just totally do not goto that doctor again. Very few people would actually go and actually voice it out to the newspapers or the Ministry of Health.

I had a similar situation that happened to me awhile back. In 2004, Granny went to see a specialist doctor at Timberland. He prescribed her some medication that did not elevate her blood pressure problem but left her very fatigue and tired. In the end, I took her away from this doctor after realising that he doesn’t even listen to her symptoms and when I confronted him about it, he gave excuses that there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the medication and that why should I believe her, being an old person.

I got mad and decided to ask relatives for another doctor. This other specialist is a lot better, as well as having a more proven track record. In fact, he’s so obliging that even he says that he’s giving us the option to buy medication from him (which he also pointed out would be more expensive) or buying from the pharmacy (cheaper) where he can give us a chit to get the medication. As for her previous medication, the current doctor said that most likely, she just didn’t adjust to the medication well and so he gave her another type of medication. And she is very fine up to today. In fact, better than fine. She is more alert and sleeping a lot better than she used it.

Then, recently, a colleague’s father was struck by stroke twice. By coincidence, she was seeing that same doctor in Timberland (not sure whether it’s before the 1st stroke or after). After the 2nd stroke, she mentioned it to me and I suggested that she see the doctor that my Granny was seeing. Also, I suggested to bring the medicine given by the Timberland doctor to the 2nd doctor. The 2nd doctor was open enough to say that they can also go back to Sarawak General Hospital(SGH) and confirm with the doctor there on whether the medication is safe or not. Apparently, the doctor at SGH pointed out that Timberland doctor’s medicine will not give any bad effect to her father but worst still, it doesn’t give any benefits to her father who is a diabetic! Whether the wrong medication was the cause of her father’s 2nd stroke, it is hard to tell but suffice to say that he’s now in better hands. Hopefully he will see improvements from the 2nd batch of medication. He may not be as fit as he was previously but at least, there is peace of mind knowing that he is now seeing a better doctor than before.

And it’s definitely very creepy that the 1st doctor is still practicing medicine. *Shudder* Makes you wonder whether anyone has died at the hands of this doctor, albeit that it may take awhile to actually die from wrong medication or useless medication. Or any other doctor for that matter. *Shudder* Note that this is not an accusation but a hypothetical statement.

I tried looking for the older blog posting where I mentioned that Granny first had problems with the 1st doctor from Timberland but couldn’t find it. It could be that I have taken it down because of fear of retribution. Well, here’s another one put up although it’s also not so transparent. But, if you live in Kuching long enough, you start to realise that you should only go to doctors who come recommended by at least 4-5 people. Or, goto a doctor recommended by another doctor that you trust.

So, hmm…again, if you don’t happen to see me for awhile or hear that I’ve been arrested or sued, well, do remember that I am reporting this as an outsider and relating to me only what my friend had said to me. Information here are to be verified again by yourself as this is only what I see and hear.

I could be wrong, yes. But nothing will make me change my mind after looking at Granny now, all the more healthy and alert.

Ok, some updates regarding my line connection.

Problem 1 : My house wiring connections

TELEKOM’s contractor came very fast but I guess business is business. The technician came this afternoon and has done the rewiring of the phone lines. So now, for my PC, there’s now a direct line using the recommended phone cable for Streamyx. That is RM50.

Also, the wiring for the 2 telephones in the house also got replaced and are also connected directly to TELEKOM. That was RM40 per phone so in total, everything was RM130.

According to the technician, rewiring of telephone systems is the norm for them. They just did 4 house before mine and all that the same problem.

And, to connect on, I have to disconnect the telephone on the top floor. Bleargh.

Problem 2 : Telephone system in the old Tabuan Jaya phases

Now, this same technician did mention that since I’m still using the old copper wiring system for the telephone exchange, there’s no way the Streamyx signal will be strong. The newer telephone systems are now using fibre-optic so the signal strength is much stronger.

So there you have it. Problem 1 is fix. Problem 2 may not be so easy and it hinges on whether TELEKOM really wants to upgrade their phone system or not. Which probably will not happen for awhile yet. Sigh. IF EVER…

It was a very funny session. Last Thursday, 2 people came and check the phoneline. They then called the Streamyx tech who came to the house and all 3 started quarrelling. Or so says my granny as they didn’t tell me that they were going on that day.

So, last Saturday, the Streamyx tech came by and explained to me the situation. Ruling out the issue of my PC and modem having problems, it was finally the phone line that had problems.

Problem 1 : My house wiring system
The way the existing phone line was connected, one of the connections outside the house got damaged during heavy rains. In fact, the Telekom contractor wasn’t even suppose to have split the line in such a way that the split connection point is outside the house. So, Streamyx Tech Office (Kuching) has help to arrange for a telephone contractor to come and rewire the house. This will cost me about RM50++ to do the entire wiring works.

Problem 2 : Telephone system in the old Tabuan Jaya phases
This one is not easily solved and it falls on Telekom on whether they want to upgrade the telephone system in the older parts of Tabuan Jaya. Because the phone exchange and system is more than 20 years old, many of the wiring works have weaken such that the Streamyx signal will not be strong. My account had to be downgraded from 1MB to 512kb. It was downgraded last Thursday and there was definitely a noticeable improvement to the line i.e. I didn’t have frequent disconnections. I live in one of the older Tabuan Jaya areas (Phase I or II, I think) so if you’re also getting frequent disconnections, it’s a good idea to downgrade it. So, I save about RM20 a month. According to the tech, once the system is improve, Streamyx will contact me on whether I want to upgrade the package or not but only if the lines have improved a lot to the point it runs a lot better than now.

Plus Note
Because my ZTE modem is one of the older modems, apparently it’s more stable. Phew! That was the only plus point for that day. The newer ZTE modems are apparently less stable and more problematic. And to think I was thinking of changing my ADSL modem to another brand. I wonder if it had to do with the firmware being from DLink. According to Mr. Wong who help to troubleshoot my modem, the firmware interface is exactly like DLink except for the name of the company on top.

Looks like it’s going to be a terrible month. The past one month has been a stressful month where it’s impossible to stay connected onto Streamyx for more than 5 min during peak hours and about 1 hr during off-peak hours.

And TMNet has just recently changed their website. They also sneakily took down their Announcement page which use to be full of notices of technical problems. Now, it’s no longer there so you’re never going to know whether it’s your computer or a Streamyx problem.

It’s gotten to the point where I have to put up a firewall just to play games and even surf the net. And usually I don’t.

There was a problem with some connection problems in Taman Tun a few weeks ago. Presumably, all the residents there are calling up the Helpdesk for help. Sigh. And so, the phoneline is always engaged so there’s not much that can be done on my side.

I wish the Kuching team that handles Streamyx can find out what the heck is going on because it’s getting extremely tiring having to pay RM88 per month for a lousy connection and poor service.

Football + Chocolate = RM119 box of TV snacks

Taken at SENSO, Hilton Kuching.