by Dr Evelyn Ho

It was a night of camaraderie and fun at the Hospis Malaysia annual dinner. As Dato’ Francis Huang Chang Hsun, Chairman of Hospis Malaysia mentioned in the welcome speech, the annual dinner was a way to show appreciation to the Hospis volunteers. About 80 people, friends, council members, doctors, staff and volunteers attended the dinner hosted by Hospis Malaysia.

Dr Rosalie Shaw, Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine and Executive Director of Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network, Singapore was a special guest and gave a very moving short talk on the need to re-focus on care and kindness in the practice of medicine. “Even within the services we are sometimes criticised for focusing on the physical symptoms and neglecting to comfort the aching heart - to ease the pain caused by the fear, anxiety, sadness, guilt, shame and disappointment felt by our patients and their family members”, Dr Shaw said.

She illustrated this with true experiences. Dr Shaw also talked about kindness and how this was lacking and how doctors “desert the dying”!

She congratulated Hospis Malaysia for the expansion of their services and the increase in the number of referrals and patient base as well as contributing to the holistic education of medical students.

The event was a success with many at the dinner going away with lucky draw prizes. Everyone had an extra special goodie bag!

Download the full text of Dr Rosalie Shaw's talk here: RosalieShawSpeech.pdf [34kb]

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