When we signed on the dotted line right before we started medical school, we knew that amongst our duties as HOs in the future, we were chiefly:

CLERKS

But we didn’t know that the fine print included responsibilities such as these:
1. Portering (sending pts from place to place)
2. Tracer (tracing everything including old notes from Medical Records Centre, scan appointments, histology samples, once I even traced a pt to his dialysis centre!)
3. Writer of memos for everything (fit to travel, excuse relative from work, excuse from IPPT, allow to cancel trip, VISA application, maid employment…)
4. Mediator (between warring factions of family)
5. Financial advisor (preparing quotations for nursing homes, for example)
6. Scribe (official scribe of conferences, discussions between snrs and pt+family)
7. Part time physiotherapists, nurses, porters, ah-mas (cleaning aunties), buyers (help pts to buy equipment), and often, full-time MSWs. (medical social workers)
8. Part time photographer and retractor in the OT.
9. Finding places for team lunches and dinners.