Fit

Date: 2 July 201x

Time: 9 AM

Place: Medical ward of a public hospital

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A formally dressed young man enters the ward. He looks around and soon he find his target.

He heads to the middle-age woman in a white uniform standing in the middle of the ward.

He murmurs politely, "Good morning, Sister. I am Dr. C, the new medical officer here. Would you be kind enough to tell me where my patients are so that I can start the morning round ?"

The woman replies in a monotonous manner, "Good day to you. Have you reported the duty and done with the morning routine?"

"Yes, I've reported my duty to the department office and get my pager. In fact, the secretary there sent me to this ward," the young doctor paused for a moment to choose his words, "What's the morning routine?"

The senior nurse seems startled, "Jove, don't tell me you haven't heard of that - we are in the N-th round of this accreditation exercise. To ensure patient safety and free of any legal consequence, each day, every doctor has to prove that they and their instrument are fit for doing the round before they are allowed to see the patient."

"Which means ...?" The medical graduate suddenly suspects he has receptive aphasia, or the other side is speaking the dialect of an alien.

"In short, you have to go to the personnel department and have your ID card checked - so as to prove you are the doctor who you claim to be. Then you have to go to the staff clinic and get a body check to prove that you do not have an infectious disease to spread around. You also need to visit the EMSD (author's note: Electrical and Mechanical Services Department) and get the certificate stating that your stethoscope and other instruments are functioning properly ..."

"Is that all?" Dr. C finds that he is really having a vertigo and may not be fit for the work.

"Ah, just that you remind me. You've also got to see a psychiatrist to get the proof that you are not having pre-senile dementia or paranoid disorder against the others." The ward manager finished triumphantly.

"I suppose there's no need for the last bit," the young doctor sighed, "I'm sure I have."