Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Doctor's Mess No more.... for now..





For those familiar with the Doctors Mess, it was located on the 4th floor of the E block RIPAS hospital. Since it first opened in 2004 by then DGMS Dr Hj Affendy, the President was Dr Abdul Rashid and has undergone several refurbishments and upgrades. It was then led by Dr Chong CL followed by Dr Chua HB, Dr Azmi and now Dr Munir. Various activities have been organized in the past at this mess, including clinical teaching, Pool tournament, Organizing Charity bowling tournaments, Video Shooting of Doc Mess Idol (hehe.. that was fun... especially when Dr William Chong was auditioned... priceless video clip that was) and many more.

We have also had many famous important visitors including, His Majesty the Sultan dan Yang Di Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam, The current Malaysian Queen, and our previous minister of Health YB Pehin Suyoi who kindly participated in our Pool Tournament.

Otherwise on a normal day, you may find during lunchtime our junior doctors gathering having take-away lunch packs, and catching up with day to day issues (work-related ofcourse ;) , or just socially interact, shooting some pools, or even just catching a nap before an afternoon clinic on one of the nice sofas.

What has happened to it now? Well the 4th floor where it resides is currently undergoing renovation to build another floor of wards. The Medical Library has been shifted to the ground floor of the Old Nurses building (beside the specialists building) and the Doctor's Mess have been relocated (temporarily we hope..) to the ground floor of Ehsan Apartments, which is currently majorly underused due to the distance it is away from everything else.

So the plan will be to build two wards, one will be a 24 bedded ward housing both male and female orthopaedic patients, and the other ward will be a new 1st Class ward. The 4th floor will also be completely enclosed so there will no longer be open air balconies, instead fully air-conditioned alleys. Meanwhile in between the wards the New Doctors Mess will be built, which is slightly smaller than the previous one and will no longer have on-call rooms like they used to. Work is actively currently under progress and is estimated to last till... further notice.

We hope the work will finish as soon as possible so that we can have our doctors mess back again. I think a lot of people underestimate how important it is to have a place where the doctors can just relax and hang out and perhaps socialize with colleagues and friends. So we hope the doctors mess culture will continue and the dedicated space for it will be kept and maintained for the use of our future generation of doctors.



2009/2010 Doctors Mess team
after the Video Shoot of MME

2008/2009 Doctors Mess Team
after organizing Charity Bowling Tournament


2007/2008 Doctors Mess Team taking picture with
Honourable Minister of Health YB Pehin Suyoi, Hounourable Deputy Minister YB Pehin Hazair
DGMS (Dr Hj Affendy) and our CEO Dr Hjh Norlila
during Pool Tournament

Doctors Mess 'transformed' awaiting Her Majesty Malaysian Queen visit

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