Doc Ahmad Hajiri

*PF = Professional fee A patient's question that is hardest for me to answer is... "Magkano po, doc?" (How much will I pay, doc?) I remember back in PGH, whenever we tell them  "wala po. wala po kayong babayaran sa aming mga duktor." (Zero. You don't need to pay us anything at all). Their faces were  always left in awe and disbelief. Almost to say to us "weeeh? di ngaaa?" But now, I am in an uncomfortable seat and I have to helplessly smile and direct them towards the nurse who in turn will lead them to the cashier. Waiving a PF is always an honorable act that we doctors would want to do. Especially to those we know are indigent and could use those money for other things like their medicine, or transportation back home. How I wish I could waive each and every PF for my patients. But I just can't. Doing it would be tantamount to suicide. Especially to young doctors who are still struggling in this messy world he just stepped ...

Assalamu alaykum! This week marks our first week in the community as part of our 6-week rotation in FCh260. 2 Community Medicine. We will be assigned in Mendez and Bailen, Cavite. We will be leaving for Cavite this Tuesday, in sha Allah. But before that, we had to finish some series of orientations, trainings and lectures on community organizing. This is pretty exciting as you may all know that I am an avid lover of Community medicine. It's like my passion! haha. I am among the 10% of medical students who wouldn't hesitate to raise their hands when asked to practice as Doctors to the far-flung communities. The smell of the unknown adventure that lies ahead certainly excites my soul! Yohohoho! Anyway. We were asked to submit a "Pre-Departure" Reflection paper with the following guide questions. I have a far longer response to all of them, but I had to cut the, short as we were limited to one page only haha. I am sharing this to everyone :)  See you around...

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you!) We are already halfway through FCH 251: Integrated Clerkship II in Family and Community Medicine. Our Sub-group, Block 7A recently ended our 2-week rotation at Community Medicine. Alhamdulillah, another wonderful experience to share ^_^ We started our first week doing the 3-day orientations (yes, I'm serious!): Orientations at Manila Health Department, Fabella Health Center, then Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) in UP-PGH, and so on. The rest of the week were spent on two things: Doing consultations and Public health lectures at Fabella Health Center (FCH) and attending SGDs and lectures. We also have our two-time 10-hr duty at the Ambulatory Dept (AMBU) during the weekends.  The first of three orientations! haha With our awesome LO Axis at the meeting/waiting area: the undying medstones! The Consultations Area. That awesome painting at the back gives much more life (?) to this place. Al t hough the o...

“Good morning, Doc!” someone greeted me with a flash of smile as I entered the Rural Health Unit. She was one of the health workers assigned in the registration area and thus will always be the first one to see, or greet anyone who comes in. “Good morning da isab, maam,” I replied with an equally warm smile that she gave me, “ Misan ‘ Sir’ na hadja ba maam , bukun pa isab aku duktur.” I explained that she can just call me ‘sir’, I am not a doctor yet after all. And I am not really used to being called a “Doc” (yet) by so many people, especially those senior than me in the health service. “ Ayaw doc, di’ manjari! Mabiyaksa ra san kaw.” She remarked with a simple yet decisive tone. And that’s how the discussion ended: “Nope. It just can’t happen. You have to get used to it anyway.” And since then, almost everyone in the health center would address me as “Doc”. The younger “Doc”. Whenever I meet my patients, I would always introduce myself as a medical student, a “not-y...

June 27, 2015 Assalamu Alaykum (Peace be upon you) and a blessed month of Ramadhan! Alhamdulillah, it’s exactly 10 days since I arrived home to Jolo (exactly a day before Ramadhan started :) Since my arrival, I have been working on three things: my summer immersion, my summer elective course and spending a productive Ramadhan with my family. What are those first two? Well, as many of you who personally knew me, I am part of UPCM’s Regionalization Program (RP) who are composed of medical students from the far flung regions in the country who will soon in sha Allah serve the community after graduation from medschool. We are known as the  “RP Students” and every summer vacation, you will find us going back to our community doing our “summer immersions”. We conduct a variety of activities during the said immersions: from conducting public health lectures to surveys on community baseline health data. After each immersion, we are then required to submit our summer im...

Assalamu Alaykum! For the 12th week of the year 2015, here are the things that happened: The Exam last Wednesday was O-kay, I think. Well it was not that easy, there were essay questions that requires some knowledge of the subject matter. We were provided with enough time for our reading materials anyway, so if we failed to learn those concepts, its on us. (Oh I miss answering essay questions after 3 years of multiple-choice scantron type exams haha). The recall-type MCQ ones are tricky as well. Huh, what's new with our exams anyway. Our Urban Community Medicine Rotation finally ended with our Final Reporting last Friday. It was not-the-usual all clinico-pathological presentation that we had in other rotations. Rather, it was more of a collation of 'creative' outputs from the four groups under ComMed for the last 2 weeks. Most of the group (actually all four of them) had video presentations (from laugh-your-ass-out funny videos to tear-jerking-MMK-style ones). O...

You walked in the busy streets of Manila and you saw a young child lying asleep on a dirty alley by the side of the road, with an empty plastic cup on his one hand and the other, empty-handed (dirty, rugged) begging for at least a coin from your purse. You never heard him ask for money, you did not have to look at his sleeping eyes, for at first glance you felt some pity on him. You stopped and checked your pocket or your purse full of extra coins. Maybe you can spare some money for him, so that he can buy some bread to get by. Maybe will give more than you thought you can. After all, you can easily find money from your salaries, or your personal businesses, or your monthly stipends. The next day on that same road, you saw him again, on that same location, wearing the same ragged, unkempt shirt. This time he had with him a younger child with him, crying. This time your heart was crushed two-fold. How could this happen? How could their parents leave them here? You cannot fathom...