All on my own

As I write this on the early morning of the 1st of May, I realise it's been almost a week since Dr. Yasser left the employment of the MOH (Ministry of Health) and so, here I am, working alone as the only specialist Paediatrician in Al Muwayh. The feeling of independence has somewhat ameliorated the despondency of the situation. I am now the Head of my department, and can implement certain changes right away. At the same time, I am perpetually on call, so that I cannot go away from Al Muwayh unless they arrange for a replacement for me, even if it is for half a day. This thought has kept me gloomy ... and brooding in temperament.

Only six days have passed since Dr. Yasser left, but it looks like a lot of time. I can honestly say that I have not once gone to my upstairs office in my capacity as the Patient Safety Director. I am able to co-ordinate the work of PS directorship from my O.P.D. office, and that is working out fine.

Since the last 2 1/2 days, my back has thrown a spasm, and although I have taken physiotherapy all the three days, I still find myself in a lot of pain. Today, I requested my Medical Director for a half-day off, and he was kind enough to grant it, so that I left the hospital at noon, and was not called for the afternoon shift. The rest that I got ... I lay supine on the floor for nearly 4 hours in the afternoon ... has helped, and the spasm seems to be less as I sit and write this post in the wee hours of the morning of Thursday. 

So, what else is new? Two of our ER nurses have also finished their final contracts and are in the exit process. They are both Filipinas - one is Sherell, the intelligent, good-looking, single and short-tempered (at times) woman, and the other is Mary Jean, the sauve, married, intelligent one who I got on the wrong side of a year or more ago, but with whom I made amends and a friendship that we both mutually respect. The attrition from the ER is rather rapid; last year, too, three of the ER nurses left us. This is easy to understand, as the prospects of nurses who have ER experience is good in other countries too, esp. Canada and the U.S. Among the rest of the staff, there is little to look forward to.

This is all I have to share with you.

P.S. I paid my fees for the final installment of MRCPCH examinations. Also, within a few days, I would be paying fees for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam that I propose to take in Mumbai in June 2014. I am also successfully going through my current two online courses: one is called Community Change in Public Health, and is run on Coursera. The other one is Engaging with India and is run on edX.org. Both have completed their first weeks and I am looking forward to the next one.

Kindly leave behind your comments. Thank you for visiting.

Day 148, Wednesday, 11th April, 2012: Mecca: Exam, Umrah

Dear Readers,


Let me say that I have been amiss in updating my blog for nearly a fortnight, and the main reason for this was that I was busy studying for my upcoming Council examination. Reading for an exam, that too in the new format of "Multiple Choice Questions" (MCQ) can be a tough thing for someone like me who has studied more than 2.5 decades ago (my last exams were in 1986). To be honest, when I came to Saudi Arabia in November last year, at no stage of the selection or final approval stage was I told that I would have to appear for an exam which would decide my future after the end of the first contract period. Not just this, I was not even prepared mentally or financially for these examinations. As my regular readers will remember, the fiasco that happened after my exit from Delhi had left me with just 15 Riyals in my pocket when I landed at the Children's Hospital on the dark night of 16th November2011. Over the next 1 month, I borrowed cash like crazy. Of the various moneys, at least SR 600 were paid to register my application for the Saudi Council for Health Specialities. Thereafter, I paid SR 350 to M/S Prometric as exam fees. Lastly, I was given the examination center at Mecca, which incurred me a loss of two days plus nearly SR 750/= in various expenses. 


Fortunately, though, I cleared the examination. The location was about 5 km away from the Kaaba (Haram) on Nuzha Street at the Al Khalij Education and Training Centre. I had gone yesterday evening and located the place where the Prometric test centre was housed. This enabled me to go to the examination centre very easily today. I arrived at about half past eleven and was admitted to the Computer room within the next five minutes by the manager, a Kerala person by the name of Mr. Rafeeq Madathil. The format of the exam was simple: I had to answer 70 MCQ's on the computer screen within 120 minutes. I had solved at least 2000 MCQs in the last 1 1/2 months, and was feeling a little nervous, but also confident that I would pass the exam with flying colours. In the event, I completed the questionnaire with about 60 minutes to spare. As soon as I finished the questions, I was given an opportunity to review all the answers, which I did in the next 10 minutes. I was done then, and as soon as I ended the exam, a screen popped up with the result: I had PASSED!


I left the exam centre at half past one, and walking out, I saw a nice eatery called "Iskander Kebap". This is the Turkish way of writing Sikander Kebab. The restaurant is located just outside the exam centre. I ate a plate of two lamb mince seekh kababs, a thin leaved Roti, two varieties of rice, Pepsi and water. My bill was SR 18/= only. Thereafter, I hired a taxi and arrived back at the Holy Mosque. My taxi driver agreed to return to fetch me after some time, so I returned to the hotel, took a bath and completed my ablutions. Then, I changed into the Ehram, and called up the taxi driver. He could not come, but he was kind to send his friend who took me to the Mecca mikaat (Mikaat or Taanim) for me to perform the namaaz before the umrah. He brought me back to the Haram, and I began my Umrah at about 4:15 p.m.


This Umrah was a little less emotive than the previous two that I did, but it was tiring, and by the time I had finished the 7 circumambulations (tawafs) around the Kaaba and the seven full-length walks from Safa-Marwah and back, my legs felt like jelly. I walked to a quiet spot inside the mosque but outside the central circle where people keep doing the tawafs. Here, I simply plopped down to await the time when Maghrib prayers would be due. Resting my legs here for almost half an hour, I felt a lot better. I completed the prayers at about seven o'clock, then went to a barber's shop to trim my scalp hair ( I did not go for a full tonsure this time). Returning from this, I went back to my hotel room to take a bath and change into mufty. 


Next, I took a taxi to Shaara Seettin, a big road that goes off at right angles to Nuzha road. Here, my aim was to visit the Zarir Bookstore in Souk al-Hizaz. I was looking for the OB-GY Pretest for Dr. Sadia, one of the two Pakistani residents working with us in Al Muweh. She is due to appear for the exam on the 16th of this month. Alas, this book was out of stock, and I had to return to the Haram after spending more than 45 minutes of my time, and SR 35 on cab fares. I tried to locate any other bookstore within Mecca by calling on friends but it was a futile attempt, and I could not get the book for Dr. Sadia. 


I returned to my hotel room for the last time today, and sat down to write this entry. Here it is, and I hope you enjoyed reading about the experience. 

Day 118, Monday, 12th March, 2012

This turned out to be an unexpectedly different day, and I will shortly share this experience with all of you, my dear readers. I had planned on going to Ta'if later this week to visit the people in charge of conducting my Council examinations, viz. the guys from Prometric, the European examinations experts on a global scale. However, the opportunity to go to Ta'if suddenly happened today when a patient with a heart attack was to be transferred to King Abdal Aziz Specialist Hospital at Ta'if. As the patient would be going by an ambulance, I jumped at the chance to accompany the patient. 


Accordingly, I rushed back home (taking a lift in a Saudi's car) to pick up all my documents to present to the guys in Ta'if. Dr. Amr Hashim had already told me the approximate location of the building that housed a bank on the ground floor and was located at the last corner before the right turn approaching the Panda Mall (Ta'if's Heart Mall). Dr. Ahmed Taib had come near my residence building to pick up Dr. Magdy, one of our residents, who has just moved into a first floor flat in the adjoining building to mine. I joined the duo and returned to the hospital in record time.  I met and asked Dr. Yasser if he would look after my OPD work as I was going to be away; he agreed readily. The ambulance, with its driver, Mr. Omar was ready by 10 a.m., and so, we left for  Ta'if at around that time.


We reached the outskirts of Ta'if at a speed of 150 kmph within a few minutes less than 2 hours. I saw the driver turning into a new road to reach the referral center where the patient was to go. At that point, I asked the driver if he would drop me off, so that I could go and finish my work. He, however, assured me that he would drop me off exactly where I wanted to go, that is, near Panda, but after we had handed the patient over to KASH. I had no choice but to agree. Thus, we first went to KASH, where we spent the better part of an hour. In between, Dr. Magdi and I visited the local cafetaria where I had a chicken sandwich and tea, while Magdi had a lamb sandwich and a soft drink. In between, I made a few calls here and there just to while away the time. Eventually, it was at a little after 12.15 p.m. that I finally reached my destination. On the ground floor of this building was the Ladies' Branch of the NCB(National Commeercial Bank), and above this, on the second floor of the facade was a board of the Al Alamiya Educational Institute. It looked like a good candidate for being in charge of the Council exams, so I climbed up to the 2nd floor of the building (there was a lift here, but it was out of service due to reasons best known to the people who owned the building). 


I opened the door of the institute to see a large reception desk but no one at the desk. Slowly, I entered the office and went inside, past the reception, deep inside till I came upon a room with a solitary person praying the Dhuhr salah. I returned to the reception desk to wait for him to finish his prayers. He came pretty soon, and introduced himself as Mr. Aiman. I told him who I was and what the purpose of my visit was (to book a date for my exam). He asked me to show him the paper the Council had sent to me, and I proceeded to take the paper out from among all the documents I had carried with me from Al Muweh. Imagine my complete shock when I realised, after repeated searching, that that paper was NOT in the bag at all. It dawned on me that I had left the paper in my house in Al Muweh! Mr. Aiman regretfully informed me that he could not register me unless I had the reference number printed on that paper. I moaned silently. We could not find any way of completing my small task, and eventually, I took his cell phone number and promised to call him after I had reached Al Muweh in the evening  with all the details. 


Dejected, I left the office, and went to Panda, where I had lunch from the Syrian restaurant located next to Kudu on the first floor of the Mall. It was a plate filled with rice, 9-10 small pieces of boned chicken, french fries, a roomali roti and sauces. It wasn't very exciting, but it was filling. After this, I washed down the food with a can of Pepsi Diet and then visited a doughnut shop to pick up an assorted pack to pass on to the nurses in the OPD. After some more browsing and so on, I finally left the mall and went to the SAPTCO bus stand (Nakal Jamaee) to book myself a ticket to Al Muweh by the  4:00 p.m. bus.


I reached my house at about 6:45 p.m. Straightaway, I went in for a bath, then refreshed and made some tea for myself. Next, I searched for and immediately found the page sent to me by the Saudi Council examinations committtee. I waited for the Maghrib salah time to end, and then called up Aiman to give him my reference number. He asked me to call him back within ten minutes, when he would connect me to a Pakistani person with an Al Rajhi bank account. I would be asked to deposit SR 350 in that person's account using my debit card. The person I spoke to is one Mr. Muhammad Imran, and as per his instruction, I went to the ATM machine and put in my deposit into his account. One thing led to another, and finally, I received an email confimation informing me about the successful registration of my ID into the Saudi Council system. Another email confirmed the receipt of my money and the date of the examination, viz. 10th April 2012. The only hitch: the exam would be in Mecca.


I was relieved to have finally completed the task I had set out to do in the morning. After this, Dr. Niyaz and I went for a walk, and we had dinner at the Kerala joint. A very eventful day was ending. 

The Working Week That Was: Sunday 4th March to Wednesday, 7th March, 2012

As is the usual case, once the working week starts, there is nothing exciting that one encounters in Al Moweh. As this was my on-call week, I was, for the most part of the mornings and afternoon, free to pursue my reading and/or writing activities, but, in the end, being the creature of habit, I loafed around the hospital, sitting in the ER with the doctors there, or spending time surfing the net, or visiting with any of the OPD doctors who were free at a given point in time. I did study, but, compared to the time spent doing all the other things, my studies amounted to almost nothing. I solved about a hundred MCQs in all, and scored about 70% overall, which is not at all comforting. I realized that I would have to read a lot more than I had thought previously.

To those who are yet unaware, I have to clear an examination conducted by Prometrics, the international examination experts on behalf of the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, before I can be certified and accredited as a Pediatrician and given a licence to work in this country. It does seem an unfair thing to do, as one comes to this country after considerable expense and is taken in and given a visa only after the verification of our certificates and credentials from our home country (India in my case), thus, there should be no need to re-examine us after we have started working here. However, this is how the penny drops in this country, and I have no choice in the matter. In fact, they will allow me a second chance at the exam should I fail to clear it the first time, but both my attempts have to be completed before the 23^rd of May 2012.

In the most unlikely case of my not passing the exam in the second attempt, I would get a final chance to appear before the end of my contract in November 2012, but there would have to be the need for the hospital to state that they needed me, and I would have to pay the examination and council fees all over again (a hefty sum of SAR 2250/= or almost INR 30000/=.

My emergency evenings were moderate, but many of the evening calls to see patients in the ER led to admissions of the children to the indoor department. This unusual thing happened because of the widely fluctuating weather conditions over the past week; we had alternating bouts of biting cold and nauseating heat conditions that probably resulted in a significant rise in infective conditions  among the mostly unhygienically brought up children of this locality.

I did not cook anything significant over the week except for mixed vegetables on Sunday and a mind-blowing masoor pulao with kadhI on Monday. On Tuesday evening, I had fish curry and dosai at the south Indian restaurant on the highway. I intend to do some serious cooking over the weekend that approaches.

I learned from my own family that the renovation of the parlour was almost done and Nishrin has begun to take clients in her newly refurbished place already. My daughter Hans has reached the fag-end of her examinations and is looking forward to being released from the stress cycle she is in for the last 1 ½ years … within a few days from writing this. Dad has been having the asthmatic attack for the last almost one week and is taking treatment with Dr. Saifee Savliwala. As to Inas, her training is progressing satisfactorily, and as per her own telling of it, she is enjoying this very much.

Let me now move on to a disclosure of my own plans for the coming months. After sitting for the Council examination in the second week of April, I am planning for a split holiday to India some time in mid-May. This is something that I am looking forward to. After my return from there, I shall plunge myself into studying for the examinations for the MRCPCH qualification of the UK. That’s it for now. And yes, if possible, I will perform the Haj this year, and if not, pray that I am able to do so the next year.