It is always a sad day when medical professionals are charged in court for negligence. Their mistakes are often fatal. Most of us were brought up in a culture that respects the work of those who care for us when we are sick. Yet those who practice in the caring professions are human beings like the rest of us: they suffer from work-related stress, they long to spend their free time with the ones they love, and they often struggle to make ends meet.

The notion that doctors are well- paid is fallacious

With our population aging at a fast rate, pressure on the caring professions is bound to increase from the already existing high levels. People have also become more clamorous about their ‘right’ to a high quality standard of care and are quick to point fingers at overworked doctors and paramedical staff when they are not given quick and efficient medical attention. Few bother to understand the often depressing conditions under which most medical staff has to work.

Many have a stereotyped notion that all doctors are extraordinarily well-paid and that the least they can do is to be available at all times to deal with our ailments as and when we require them to do so. There are, of course, a few consultants who manage to earn substantial income that could even run into hundreds of thousands of euros every year. But they are the exception and one hopes that these few mega-rich professionals give more importance to supporting the community they serve.

Most young doctors, especially those serving in our public health system, are working under immense pressure: long hours of poorly paid work, insufficient paramedical support, lack of appreciation by their bosses, often ungrateful patients and their relatives, and a medical physical infrastructure that is simply not coping with the predictable increasing demand for services.

The result of this sad situation is that many young professionals are suffering from burnout very early in their careers. Besides suffering from low motivation, they have to pay a high price in their personal lives often in the form of broken relationships and depression. One need hardly stress that an overworked doctor or paramedic is at a higher risk of committing a fatal error that can ruin one’s career. Ironically, our carers are often the ones who need to be cared for after being subjected to unreasonable working conditions in the execution of their duties.

The first thing that needs to be done to reverse this trend is to put our public health service of a solid financial basis. Our health system may be free, but the rationing of resources is a fact of life however much the administration may deny it. The rationing that is most visible to users of our health system is that of shortage of medicine in our hospital pharmacy with the now infamous phenomenon of ‘out of stock’ medicine.

The more dramatic manifestation of rationing of resources is the shortage of staff and physical infrastructure as it becomes abundantly evident that both our public hospitals and our health centres are not coping with the demand for their services. Our junior medical and paramedical staff members are the ones who are taking the brunt of this lack of political commitment to put our public health service on a sound and sustainable economic basis.

The public too needs to do its part to ensure that our caring professionals are treated with the respect they deserve. The notion that doctors are well-paid is fallacious. Even if they were, most of them fully deserve to earn decent salaries as a result of the high level of responsibility that they have to shoulder in their daily work. But, perhaps more important, they deserve to be treated like all other workers by being given a reasonable work load that allows them sufficient time to recover from their stressful daily experiences and enjoy their free time with their loved ones.

I sincerely believe that our public health service should remain free at the point of delivery. But this implies that we need to input sufficient resources in the system – resources that have to be financed by taxpayers’ money. However, throwing money at the problems facing our public health service will not get us anywhere.

What we need is a clear strategy that addresses the issues of active aging, effective primary health services as well as good management of our hospitals and health centres.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com