I think the general attitude of hospital doctors who are quarantined or turn positive is one of relief. This is not because of COVID19. This has always been the case because all of us are so overworked; forced LOA is a blessing. Hell, two of my friends were on QO last year from the TTSH cluster and they loved it. First degree contact is a call for celebration.

Legally, doctors are allowed to work up to a maximum of 80 hours a week, but often exceed this limit by 10-30 hours. Oh, a new ICU has been opened? The number of doctors remain the same. The healthcare clusters have rules mandating a limit of 40+h for all healthcare workers and admin staff. However, doctors for some reason are not accorded the same protections. Our time is elastic and can be stretched on goodwill. This the administrators know and take fully advantage of. And please remember, even prior to our first COVID19 case, doctors under MOHH were already overworked. Our hospitals already had little reserve manpower. The media loves to speak about capacity in terms of ICU beds - please don't forget manpower.

Few actually dare to speak up. The public has a role to play too. Few realise doctors work 30-36+ hour shifts without sleep and go to work the next day as per normal. I'd recommend the general public follow instagram.com/updatemeprn for a firsthand account of life in the hospital. We don't want your claps. We want a day off and to be renumerated accordingly - kindly get off your moral high horse if you think we should work for free (what some of us are already doing), we have families and children to feed too.