Working in Brunei Darussalam

I came across this article about working in Brunei Darussalam, which was published by Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences. It is a very interesting read about the experience from an expatriate doctor, about working in Brunei Darussalam, and I thought I'd like to share it with our readers.

Hopefully it will give a better insight to other doctors who wishes to come and work Brunei.

Here are the links

http://pjms.com.pk/issues/octdec107/pdf/brunei.pdf

http://pjms.com.pk/issues/octdec107/article/bc3.html

Hospital Medicine Career Pathways + Current Doctors Salary in Brunei

I think this flowchart best summarizes the different career pathways available in hospital medicine, that Brunei Government recognizes at the moment for our doctors. On the left hand side you can see the pay scale corresponding to your grades and your required qualifications in the middle column. Other Post-Graduate qualifications are not included, because it seems to be quite variable at times. We are not sure why this is so.. just an observation. Probably best to direct that questions to the PGATB and relevant authorities.

Also to note is that only Housemanship/Foundation year and Basic Specialty Training (BST) programme are available in Brunei at the moment. For AST, Seamless training pathways and other equivalant, you'd have to go abroad to places like Singapore, Australia, UK and the US.

At least this information will be most useful to our undergraduates whom are still studying abroad especially for those planning to stay in hospital medicine. For GPs and Public Health this flowchart does not apply. Please note that our undegraduates from Australia & New Zealand will be considered the same like UK.

This information is the based on the current scheme of service. Please bear in mind that this does not take into consideration the New Scheme of Service which we're still working on with JPA and it hasn't included the On-Call Allowances which is still awaiting it's implementation.

Xray of the month

Male 92, unable to remember fall, wounds on forehead and wrist, neck pain. No neurological deficit. Whats the abnormality?

courtesy of rpullinger, BMJ.

Application for Renewal of Licence to Practice - from Brunei Medical Board

Dear Doctor,

Application for Renewal of Licence to Practice

The Brunei Medical Board would like to inform you that all Medical Practitioners and Dentists in the government sector need to apply for renewal of licence to practise by 1 December 2009, for the year 2010.

Please find attached the application form to be used, which is to be returned to the Brunei Medical Board before 1 December 2009, with the following:

1. Two recent passport photographs

2. Evidence of 30 CME points in the past 12 months or from 1 September 2008 to 31 August 2009. This will normally be in the form of the CME log book and supporting certificates

3. $50 fee in cash, which will be waived if the complete application is received by the Brunei Medical Board before 1 December 2009

The form can also be downloaded at http://www.moh.gov.bn/bruneimedicalboard/regform.htm

This form will also be coming to you by post, in case contact by email fails. I would be grateful if you could ensure that your colleagues and those under you also know about this requirement to renew licence to practice for next year.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Melanie Chin

Secretary

Brunei Medical Board

Ministry of Health
Commonwealth Drive
Bandar Seri Begawan BB3910
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

Email: bmb.brunei@moh.gov.bn

Tel: +673 2 384 182

Festive season's mishaps

This year we did not get any serious 'fireworks' accident or 'sugar-cane machine' crush injury like we used. Perhaps increased public awareness kept these occupational and home injuries at it's minimum. Unfortunately Road Traffic Accidents are on the rise and we've had at least two major accidents just during the fasting month, where in one of them a husband lost a wife and his 4 children ended up with multiple fractures of long bones.

The public has been warned about Safety whilst driving incessantly, No talking on the phones, No texting, No cutting corners, No drinking alcohol, Keep to your speedlimit, Safety belt.. but still these accidents do occur. The sad things are, the culprits escape with moderate injuries, the innocent law abiding road users lose their precious ones.. how many times have I seen this is .... one to many.

Anyway please guys... becareful on the road.

This time we feature some interesting mishaps that occured around the festive season. Perhaps some lessons could be learnt from them...




You may have heard recently on the news about a young child who was the victim of a kite string accident. The above picture is the neck of the child which got caught in kite string. Unfortunately the string was directly at the child's path as the child was cycling through a residential area. It was so sharp after being treated with broken glass (a common practise amongst kite enthusiasts) that it severed the Sternocleidomastoid and Superficial veins. Luckily it missed the arteries otherwise it would have been a different ending. The surgeons repaired the injury and the child now has been discharge home.

Moral of the story: Don't treat you kite strings with smashed broken glass, you never know what or who it might injure....


This was an elderly lady presented to Accident & Emergency department with a gangrenous finger. The story, it was bitten by a cray-fish a month ago and was treated by a private GP with oral antibiotics. A month later the swelling persist and the RINGS in her finger is still there!! Ofcourse the blood supply to that digit is completely obliterated by then and the finger developed dry gangrene.

It still baffling how this was kept at home for 1 month until it came to this stage. It took a double action ring cutter to remove the rings, but eventually the digit was amputated anyway.


Moral of the story: Remember to Remove your rings at your fingers if its stung or injured!