Dr. Myint Oo (GP) - Articles on basic medical ethics and medical ethics

We warmly welcome the publication of the book Fundamentals of General Practitioner's Manual and Articles on Medical Ethics, written and edited by Dr. Myint Oo, as the first ethics manual for Myanmar medicine. We would also like to congratulate Dr. Myint Oo (GP) for his writing and presentation.

          Now, as the number of doctors increases, some people are dissatisfied with the declining ethics of some doctors in providing healthcare to patients, and they are whispering among the public, filing complaints to the Ministry of Health and the Myanmar Medical Council to take necessary action, and writing openly in magazines and journals about the unpleasant and disappointing treatments and experiences they have experienced in the medical world, informing the public.

Some are showing signs of wanting to sue. We need to examine why this is happening now and why it didn't happen before.

Study the post-war medical world Around 1920, the number of medical students was only 70 to 90 per year, and from 1923 onwards, when Rangoon Medical College was opened as the Faculty of Medicine under the University of Rangoon, only 40 students were admitted each year. After independence, the number of students who wanted to study medicine increased, and from 1948-49 onwards, the number of students was increased to 120. In 1950, the Branch Medical College, Mandalay, started the Second MBBS class with 50 students per year. During the 1962-63 revolutionary government, the number of students increased to 550 per year. At that time, there were three medical schools, with 350 in Rangoon, 150 in Mandalay and 50 in Mingalardon. Today, there are five schools, and the number of medical students admitted each year is almost three thousand. The Faculty of Medicine (1) has the largest number of students.

In the post-war period in Japan, there was a shortage of doctors and nurses, which was causing many patients to lose their lives. Those who wanted to change the situation became interested in studying medicine. The strong desire to save the lives of patients and relieve their suffering led to a large number of people studying medicine based on three factors: interest, passion, aptitude, and attlus.

Until 1962, anyone who wanted to study medicine had to apply to Yangon University after completing 10th grade or higher. Students who studied Physics, Chemistry & Biology for 2 years and scored more than 50% in each subject were allowed to continue their education in medical college. It was not necessary to get many D's in 10th grade . Anyone who passed the matriculation examination was allowed to enter medical school. Medical students studied hard and with their own will and dedication based on their Insura Aptase and AIIrus. They were determined to do their best to help patients recover from their diseases and live longer.

After completing a five-year course at a college and passing the exam , you can register with the Medical Council to get a medical license. Once the results are released, the medical colleges send the list of successful candidates to the Myanmar Medical Council. The Medical Council registers every successful student. At that time, the registration fee was only 2 kyats. With 2 kyats, you got a medical license for life. If there is a violation of medical ethics, the registration is temporarily suspended, but you can get it back if you apply later.

Passing the exam is a recognition from the school that you have the skills to save patients' lives as a professional. A medical license is a right to practice medicine anywhere in Myanmar. When you register, you are given a four-page code of ethics issued by the Medical Council. They are still given this. When you attend the medical graduation ceremony, you are given 8 oaths by the rector. These 8 oaths are now in the book compiled by Dr. Myint U (GP). Later, it became 9.

I have completed my medical education. If I have a medical license, I can apply to work at the Ministry of Health if I want to. I can also open my own clinic and become a General Practitioner. I can also work in other companies. There were many opportunities to work. The basic pay scale of an assistant doctor in the Ministry of Health is 350 kyats. The minimum wage is 75 kyats, so it is 425 kyats per month. The cost of living is not high, and a doctor can feed and clothe a family of four well, support his parents, and do charity work. The work is also easy, the number of doctors is small, the number of patients is small, and I am comfortable with my income. At the time of independence, my country was giving State Scholar scholarships to produce specialist doctors and sending them to England. Some of them went. Some continued to work locally. Since GPs were also comfortable, there was no greed, anger, or ignorance. In particular, to create harmony among doctors, the Myanmar Medical Association organized picnics twice a month. We developed a close bond with each other, and if there were any ethical lapses, everyone would come together and educate and correct them so that they could resolve them. As a medical association, we were able to do a lot of things to maintain ethics. We often reviewed the 8 vows we recited at the graduation ceremony and the council's instructions, so there was no major scandal regarding ethics. Everything went well.

At that time, patients had great respect for doctors. Even when their loved ones died during treatment, patients and relatives wrote in the newspaper that they were grateful to the doctors who treated them. There were no major ethical violations on the part of doctors. During the five years of medical school, there were only three one-hour lectures on ethics in the forensic medicine subject. During the post-mortem autopsy training, there were occasional discussions on ethics. Doctors and nurses in the medical field, such as surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, especially in the field of medicine, taught them how to greet patients, how to sit down, and how to handle them as their own role models. In this way, students were taught to help each other and to quietly correct each other like brothers and sisters, so that there were no serious violations of ethics.

The staff doctors who had to work in remote areas and jungles were also transferred to large teaching hospitals in the city when the time came, so they did not complain. They worked with the full understanding that when they returned to the teaching hospitals, they would have to relearn the techniques and ethics, so there were no major problems in the government sector. There was a lot of compromise between the GPs working outside and the staff doctors regarding nursing care, and it was comfortable.

Doctors born in Burma have been recognized by the GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL of Britain since 1937. The results of the three medical schools were sent to the GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL every year. Once they were sent, they were automatically recognized. Later, starting around 1975, this recognition was withdrawn. The reason for this was that as the number of students in Myanmar schools increased, the teacher-student ratio in the classrooms became poor, so they were rejected as not meeting the standard of quality medical education.

When the revolutionary government came to power, the number of medical students was increased. A new medical school was opened in Mingalardon, and three schools in Yangon, Mandalay, and Mingalardon accepted 550 students. The selection process for admission to the school was also not open to enthusiastic students, and the first 550 students with the highest scores in the matriculation examination were distributed to the first 550 students with the highest scores in medicine (1), medicine (2), and medicine-man. They say that good people get good people. They are very good. When they get too good, they get carried away, one by one. There are relationships that break down. Those who do not go to school feel like they are no longer people. They become insignificant in the social community.

As a medical school (1), I have noticed that the first one to twenty students out of 350 students are treating the students who are in the later roll numbers unfairly. There are differences between students and interpersonal relationship colhesion and trust sets are decreasing. These are part of the reasons why doctors lose their ethics later.

The ILA system has its good and bad sides. At the first Fishers Meet when they arrived at medical school, the students of the University of Medicine (1) asked questions such as: Which city in Myanmar is the best place to practice as a doctor? Which language will give them the best income? Before pursuing medicine, they put aside their interests, aniteda , and aptitudes and entered with a business-like attitude.

There are parts of the world that are restricting the rights of those who want to study medicine. Even if they become doctors, they are more interested in commercial medicine than in medical treatment, such as opening hospitals and making a business out of medical knowledge, which has led to a decline in the ethics of the medical world.

When students came, teachers had to work harder to teach. Meaningful Teaching did not exist. The number of students at the University of Medicine (1) only increased, but the number of teachers did not. The classroom buildings were not expanded either. In the past, a classroom that could accommodate 40 students now accommodates more than 300 students. The teachers worked hard and taught as much as they could within the limited opportunities available, so the quality of doctors graduating from the Yangon Medical School is still famous in the world.

The ILA system came in and they started competing with each other, they got divided, they got greedy, etc. These are the reasons why doctors lost their ethics. Later, doctors became unemployed again. Medical schools accept 550 students a year, and the number of doctors who become doctors is about 350-400 a year, but the government can only employ 150-200. The rest work outside. When they become GPs, their relationships are not as good as they thought. So they start doing business that is not related to the world. As the prices of goods increase, their salaries become insufficient. They start doing jobs that are not in line with the ethics of doctors. These are also part of the reason why doctors lose their ethics. They do not have family feelings, they hold grudges against each other, they become jealous, they become vindictive, etc., and they lose their morale and do whatever they want.

Around 1970, a group of doctors returning from abroad, before returning to Yangon, got greedy and started competing with each other by betting on how much money they would earn in a year. Because they got greedy and started working, one of the doctors in the group was sued.