^^^^ J^^^ J"^^ I I^^J ^ July-September2011
A
ISSUE 115
\
C
H
A
N
G
I
G
E
N
E
R
A
L
H O S P I T A L N E W S L E T T E R | MICACP) 187/02/2011
v
ENERGY BOOST!' FIND OUT HOW ON f>AGE 10 02 Editor's Note 03 What's New
o
• Exercise Is Medicine! • What Patients Say • Mental Health 'CPR' For Troubled Youth
06 Patient Success
• Soak Your Troubles Away
08 Caregiver Bonus • A Daughter's Love
10 Special Report: Get More Energy! • Sit And Stretch • Five Super Foods • Better In Bed
15 The Toxicologist's In • The Poison Detector
On the cover{Tffifl Hamzah, Resident Sports PhyWSS Mr David Wynne, Physiotherapist Ms Lim Hui Min, Pharmacist
16 Feature
• Hanging On For Life
18 Heart To Heart • The Will To Live
20 Lifestyle • On-track Therapy • Relieve Your Lunchtime Woes
22 Ask An Expert 23 Bouquets • Special Touch From Healthcare Assistant • Nursing Instincts • Compliments To Staff Nurse Theresa Cabahug, Ward 25
onror By Wong Sher Maine
Unpredictability, high stress, quick turnover - an environment that will turn most people off, but not Dr Lee Wee Yee, Senior Consultant at A&E. We follow her hectic rounds and see why she has stayed on the job for 1 1 years.
c/o A S A N D W I C H and a flask of green tea sit untouched on Dr Lee Wee Yee's desk, lunch neglected in a barrage of phone calls, which the A & E doctor smilingly takes on her mobile and office phone.
A&E Senior Consultant Dr Lee Wee Yee
"Auntie, this is not a market and I am not going to bargain with you, but you need to be admitted now, not come in another day of your choice," she exhorts in Mandarin to a patient. "Yes? Tell me why do you think it's hepatobiliary sepsis?" she questions a junior doctor. "Has the X-ray come in yet? A h , I see it onscreen now," she exclaims, turning to her screen as she examines a patient's X-rays on her computer monitor.
FEATURE | ]/
The senior consultant who is supervising the junior doctors today later tells you, in between calls: "Today is actually quite a good day for me because I don't have meetings to attend or classes to teach after the clinical shift ends." Dr Lee, 43, works at Singapore's busiest A & E department at C G H where up to 500 patients stream in each day seeking relief for a spectrum of emergency ailments from wounds to debilitating stomach aches. Dr Lee and her team diagnose, treat patients and send them home or refer them to other departments for follow-up treatment if there is an underlying health condition like heart disease, for instance.
Of these patients, 15 to 20% are rushed in by ambulance and it is in the resuscitation room where Dr Lee and her colleagues try to hang on to life, treating victims of heart attack, road traffic accidents and bad falls. "In a sense, this is the impression most people have of the A & E based on what they see on TV," said Dr Lee. One of the greatest challenges here: Breaking news of sudden death. Said Dr Lee, who may inform relatives of their loved one's death up to three times a day: "It can be difficult. We have to be sympathetic and yet, we need to put ourselves outside of the situation."
Indeed, working in the A & E has sharpened her communication skills. She said: "As the transition point between community and the hospital, we must be reasonable communicators, and anyone working in A & E must be happy working with and talking to people." As she checks in on the patients who sit in the waiting rooms, the relief is palpable when she assures a foreign worker that the pain in his back is probably caused by muscle strain and not kidney stones, and when she cheerfully tells a young man that his leg injury does not require him to be warded. She said: "For some people, telling them that they need to be hospitalised is a big thing." The job is also highly unpredictable, more so than in other medical disciplines, as patients come in with a range of ailments, some with mysterious causes. Despite this, Dr Lee loves her job, which she says requires the ability to be quick on the feet and multi-task. "I enjoy the challenge, the unpredictability and the quick return in stabilising patients. Often, we see immediate relief." She also likes being part of a team. It is clear, as Dr Lee consults with and sometimes guides the junior doctors and nurses who look after the patients. Said Dr Lee: "Here, we focus a lot on teamwork. Doctors work side by side with the