On 3 Jun 2024, the Vietnam tour group had a reunion with Frances who is a permanent resident of New Zealand. She opted to stay and work there as her two sons are citizens there.
As an administration manager in a hospital, she is in charge of 7 referred diabetic patients whom the Specialist would entertain each workday morning day at the Hospital. The Specialist would be in private practice after that. "No show" would be her Key Performance Indicators, meaning that the number of patients coming for treatment.
Seven patients would be by appointment for the day. Only urgent cases would be attended to while other might have to wait months. Some die before their appointment. Patients were mainly islanders - Maoris, Samoans and others who have chronic diseases like diabetes. She would have to phone a taxi and make arrangements for the patient to be picked up and sent to the public hospital where she worked. Many times, the patient did not turn up despite the free taxi services!
To resolve the no shows, the hospital engaged a Maori to do house visits to check and educate the prospective patients so that they would accept the free taxi services and go for their appointments.
Her previous job in Singapore was as a patient assistant to the doctors at a public hospital in the suburb. The specialist would have an entourage of intern doctors, nurses and she would take notes of patient conditions. Here in New Zealand, the specialist treats 7 patients only. He does not have an entourage. Hence her workload is much less stressful. She said she earned more than in Singapore. As she can speak Mandarin and other dialects, she is called to phone the prospective Chinese nationals to come for appointment as her colleagues cannot communicate with them.
"You can earn $50 per hour as an interpreter," he boss told her. "But you have to study for one year at get your certification." At her age, with two grown up adult sons, she did not look forward to more examinations.
She had passed the phlebotomist test in Singapore and has the certificate to practise as a phlebomtomist in Singapore. But she was not keen on this work in New Zealand.
T 
