Page 94 - HKU Surgery 110 Anniversary E-Book

Chapter IV. A Centre of Excellence

Resident training. (1997).
Those Were the Days

The long hours put in by surgical interns was a very, very hard time. I was on call
and trainees in the past have become four days out of six. Sometimes I would
legendary – days and nights at work, with have no sleep for three days.”
little time for anything else but sleep.
Work-life balance had to be re-adjusted. Others felt energised, such as Professor Lo
Those who endured it look back with Chung-Mau. “We spent very long hours,
mixed feelings. but we enjoyed it. We worked over 100
hours a week, starting at 6.30am every
Many recall it as a difficult time, such as day, finishing at 8.30 pm, then we were
Professor Chu Kent-Man. “When I was on call. I recall after a sleepless night, at
an intern in the 1980s, we could only 6am I finished all call operations. It was
train at Queen Mary Hospital on Hong a winter day and I went out for fresh air.
Kong Island. The whole floor was flooded Suddenly, I felt, hey, how nice that I have
with patients and you basically needed to done so much while others are sleeping.
work 24 hours a day and be very efficient, I haven’t wasted my time.”
otherwise you cannot finish the work. It

Finding Relief

Interns and Residents found different to be sprayed before entering. He also
ways to cope with the stresses they faced. remembered that for fun, they organised
Professor Simon Law, who returned from barbecues or hotpots in the call room,
overseas studies in 1989, remembered now the GB Ong Library. “When we
very limited air-conditioning on the were on call, it was very collegial and
crowded wards in the hot summers. “On everybody knew each other. One time
the weekends, we would walk around in we had a ‘fight’ in the call room, with
shorts,” he said. everyone throwing scrub dresses at each
other. One guy threw a sample can of
Professor Stephen Cheng recalled interns milk powder and it exploded, going
being assigned on-call rooms that were everywhere like snowfall.”
crawling with cockroaches and had

Basic Surgical Skills Course (circa 1996).

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