Docs eye paternity leave

Public-sector doctors are asking for a three- day paternity leave to bolster low staff morale.
"There simply aren't enough hours in a day for me to fulfill my work and family roles," said Queen Mary Hospital doctor of international medicine Pierre Chan.

During a week of 30-hour shifts and regular 12-hour work days, he has only been able to spend an hour and a half with his one-year- old daughter each time they have met.

"Our family is socially and psychologically unhealthy," said Chan's wife and family doctor Eunice Chan Yin-chiu.

When she was seven months' pregnant she quit the public sector fearing job-related stress would affect her pregnancy.

Although her husband stayed in the public sector, she accepted a pay cut to enter the private sector to have more time with their child.

According to surgeon Kelvin Ng Kwok- chai, Chan's departure to the private sector is a familiar story as more doctors are switching over to get better hours and a more balanced work life.

"The problem is some doctors are also fathers, and they have to play their family roles as parents - of course they do their best to serve patients but they don't have time to take care of their family life," Hong Kong Public Doctors' Association vice president Ho Pak- leung said.

With colleagues working more than 70 hours a week or 33 hours more than their contract stipulates, Ho said introducing paternity leave would not only help doctors balance work and home life but also be an important olive branch and first step in upcoming negotiations between public-sector doctors and the Hospital Authority.

He said unless services are redefined and a hybrid public/private solution found, manpower shortages will continue to wreak havoc on job satisfaction and morale among public sector health-care workers.

"Wives need the support and care of their husbands," Federation of Trade Union lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing said during an FTU and Men's Concern Group march in Central yesterday - Fathers' Day.

He said offering leave to fathers would improve workplace morale and help divide child- rearing responsibilities between parents.

An authority spokeswoman said it will consider initiatives to boost morale.

Standard Chartered, HSBC and Lehman Brothers offer five days' paternity leave, while China Light and Gas offers three. Australia and New Zealand offer unpaid paternity leave to workers, and two weeks of paid leave is provided in Britain and France through social insurance.

Community benefit helps special 4-year-old

By: News 8 Austin Staff
The Austin community held a benefit Saturday to help with the high costs of one special little boy's medical bills.

The Joshua Jam Benefit Concert and Silent Auction was held Saturday at Dave & Buster's.

Joshua Edmondson is an excited little boy who enjoys being a 4-year-old. Playing the drums and arcade games are just some of the things he loves.

But Joshua is more than your everyday child. He's one in a million, literally: Joshua has a rare bone disease that affects one in a million kids.

"He's just strong, very strong," Joshua's mother, Michelle Edmondson, said. "He knows if we go to the hospital he's going to get shots and he says, 'Well, it makes me sad that I'm going to get shots, but I know I'm going to get better.' He's strong."

Joshua must get treatment from a specialist not covered by his insurance.

All of the proceeds of Saturday's benefit will go to Joshua and his family for his care and expenses.

A little boy who dreams of school

by Thu Giang

HA NOI — The five-year-old boy lost all trace of his previously shy look as he reached out to the performance on stage, a show of dazzling coloured lights at the Friendship Cultural Palace in Ha Noi.

A performance like this may be nothing new for city children, but for Nguyen Van Nam, an HIV-infected child from northern Thai Binh Province, it was like a fantastic dream.

It was the first time Nam, not his real name, had ever visited the capital city. He was here to enjoy International Children’s Day.It was the largest-ever celebration for HIV/AIDS children in Viet Nam.

Organised by the Ministry of Health, it was attended by about 500 infected children between the ages of five and 15 from 35 of the nation’s 64 cities and provinces.

Nam was born HIV-positive in 2003. One year later, his parents died of AIDS complications and he was left in the care of his grandparents, who are farmers.

Nam was too shy to talk about himself. His grandfather, who prefers to remain anonymous, simply wanted to say: "Thank you."

According to the Viet Nam Administrators for HIV/AIDS Control, there are more than 3,500 children under the age of 16 years living with HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam. Of these, about 1,100 lack health insurance.

Deputy director of the ministry’s Treatment Department, Le Thi Huong, said about 80 per cent of the cost of their insurance would be paid by the Viet Nam Insurance Corporation, while the rest would be sought from other sources, such as the Viet Nam Fund for Poor Children – or funds for children infected with HIV/AIDS.

Simple things like eating and playing are very meaningful for children such as Nam, but something is missing. Nam’s grandfather, who took him to the Children’s Day, said the boy was stigmatised for carrying the virus.

Kept out

He said that discrimination from teachers and parents had blocked his grandson’s way to school.

Nam’s health has recently improved, thanks to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. However, no kindergarten in his area will enrol him.

"I know that the country’s law allows children infected with HIV/AIDS to study with normal children, so why is my grandson not welcome at school?

My wife and I are old. We worry about Nam’s future," said the grandfather. Nam is one of many children infected with HIV/AIDS who have been rejected by schools because of their health status.

A deputy principal of a Ha Noi-based pre-secondary school, who wants to remain anonymous, said she was willing to receive children infected with HIV/AIDS to her school as was required by Government’s regulation.

However, she said infected children would not receive special or separate treatment in class.

"If the children received special care, it would affect their integration. Besides, other children’s parents would boycott the kindergarten," she said.

Head of the Hai Duong Provincial Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, Doan Minh, who took three affected children to the special event, said direct talk between consultants and parents was very important because it would decide whether the infected children could study in school.

"Once I was asked by parents if I would bring my daughter into a classroom where there were children with HIV,"Minh said.

"Fear of a disease is very natural. I think if people understood it and knew about prevention, their worries would be dispelled."

Minh said his centre’s staff regularly visited localities to solve problems for children living with HIV/AIDS. It was frequently necessary to invoke the Government’s regulation that allows infected children to study together with normal children – and then organise direct talk with parents about HIV/AIDS.

"To prevent stigma and discrimination from the community, especially at school, it’s necessary to improve the knowledge of the local authorities, parents and especially the teachers, who have direct communication with parents," said Minh.

Nam’s road to education remains long, but his grandparents live in the hope that, one day, he will be able to go to school and be treated as a normal child. — VNS