Holiday Allowances & 10 years service allowances

To most perhaps the above subject is very familiar, but to most of us who have worked less than 3 years in the government service, a holiday allowance after every 3 years of service and a 10 year service allowance is very much welcomed.

For those who have not come back to Brunei yet and medical students abroad, we are entitled to the allowances below:

1. 3 year holiday allowance of $2,500 each for you and your wife and up to 4 children below 18yrs old
2. For children below 12yrs old it's $1,250
3. 10 years service allowance of up to $21,700 (husband & wife) and if your single it's $10,850. Pls note this one is one-off allowance.
   

Don't forget to apply for these allowances well in advance (at least a month) before your due date i.e. your appointment date as medical officer.

To apply, first go to Ministry of Health, 1st floor and ask for the Allowance section. Then ask for a form to apply for the above respective allowances. Go back and fill it up. You need a copy of your appointment letter, Identity Card & Bank Card or statement (if your married I suppose you need the marriage certificate and your wife's details). At the time of writing this article, only male government officers are entitled to apply for their wives and not vice versa. Then hand in this form to RIPAS administrative department at the CEO's office - claims section (it's room 1).

The CEO then will draft a minute to confirm you are entitled to the above allowances. Once the minute is ready 2 days later, I have been advice by the Finance dept to hand this minute back to the Ministry of Health my self. Because as we all know, letters easily get lost on the way causing you to get delayed allowances. Hand it in to where you got the form from, 1st Floor MoH.

Simple right!

Other allowances that you are also entitled to are:-

1. Overnight allowance. e.g. if you are posted to Temburong - $40-45 / night
   
2. Moving to a new workplace allowance - $350 / one off
3. Mileage allowance from home to RIPAS - $29/mth if within 9.5km etc...
4. Ad hoc mileage allowance if your posted to KB or Tutong and you use your own vehicle - $0.45 / km (to and from)
5. Interest free car loan up to $15,000 (repay within 4 years)
   
6. Interest Free Housing Load up to 4 years basic pay (repay within 30 years)
7. Free Haj package worth $3,500/per person after 15 yrs of service
   
8. Education allowance for your kids

• $800/mth for overseas education
• $120/mth for local schools
• $800 / mth if you send them to JIS (Jerudong international school) Year 7 (?up till or from)

Happy Applying!

Are we ready for a Disaster?

Following the recent disaster drill which was organised by the Royal Brunei Police Force, it left us thinking and wondering, do we really have the ability to respond to such a disaster call. Police Force, Firemen and Army usually take central role in managing these disasters which leaves us medical personel on the sidelines... treating the wounded...

What happens during a disaster from the medical point of view?... How is our response to a disaster call?... Do we have enough personnel and equipments...? Is our protocol for disaster management solid...? The experience from the recent disaster drill raised these issues that I think we have to look closely and try to solve. We can never be ready 100% for a disaster but we can at least be prepared for it.

The scenario painted, albeit a little bit on the un-realistic side (An anthrax bomb, followed by hostage taking at sheraton, followed by another bomb blast in BSB, and ended with a stand-off between the police and terrorist at a house in Kg Bebuloh) which went on from 2pm till 3am (13hrs!) was nevertheless ..... Exhausting!

Although we failed (bomb squad) initially to identify the anthrax powder in the beginning of drill...in other words the containment procedure were somewhat 'delayed'... because Everyone was already exposed to the anthrax! Tq... in theory ofcourse we all will eventually succumb to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and die!. The rest of the disaster drill was pretty much the Police show really... The police rounded the 'terrorist' at Sheraton, the Special Police Squad i.e. 'Brunei S.W.A.T. team'... (aseh..) stormed in and caught the bad guys. then The police bomb squad diffuse the bombs in the Capital city... and the rest I fell asleep....

The medics... well the 1st scenario (anthrax bomb) we responded really fast.. did our job and went.. The second scenario...again faster response... but the waiting was almost unbearable.. altho the S.W.A.T. team put on a good show for us...plenty of shooting and bombs.... the 3rd scenario at midnight we realized that we were just there for the show... then the 4th scenario at 3am... we were not involved coz most of us decided to go to bed. I suppose if it was a real disaster or the medics were actually given task we would be busier of course.

Was it a good drill? For Police yes... for us yes and no. Yes because we exercised our response time to the scene and despatch our 4 Rescue teams within 5 mins. Yes because we identified that food for our teams on the site is equally important as sending teams there. No food and drinks.. No efficient team working on site. Yes because We identified that we don't have facility to build 'Field' medical area, which we need. Yes because we have identified our Disaster Alert Response Team personnel which are a solid bunch of people! I really enjoyed working with them.

No.. because the full Major Medical Event protocol was not exercised yet.

Unfortunately or Fortunately.. the drill was exercised for 'on the site management' only.. i.e. once the patients were brought to RIPAS, it ended there. The problem with this is that we will never know how our own hospital team will manage and respond if a disaster as such were to happen. Do we have enough manpower and logistics to handle a disaster of such scale in the hospital?...Can we handle the traffice in and out of RIPAS?.. do we have enough space and beds? some questions for 'us' to answer there...

But my opinion our MME (emergency) plan is pretty solid, on paper ofcourse. But exercising this plan by playing it out on a drill is equally important, because a good plan is only as good as it is on paper.

After this drill...I think I can see a full-scale disaster drill coming up soon.. like a plane crash drill... hint hint... hopefully after raya...stay tune for more updates

In the meantime let us entertain you with a video clip of the 'MME Activation'. This clip was done in collaboration with Doctors Mess & Accident Emergency Dept. Also special Thanks to Dr Ang (HoD) Hj Lamat (Cameraman), and Army personnels (make-up).