Never too old: The 93-year-old cardiologist who still works 6 days a week
My name is Charles Toh Chai Soon. I’m 93.
00:00:05
My working hours now are Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays half day. Dr Charles Toh is one of Singapore’s pioneering heart specialists He has never retired and still enjoys working full-time I wake up at 7am, I leave home at 8am and I’m here at 8.30am. I do a walk around for half an hour if I have patients in the ward. If there are no patients in the ward, we just have a chit-chat with the doctors and have a cup of tea. And our clinic opens at 9.30am, and we go on till about 1pm. And from 2pm to 5 pm, we run the clinic. I think what I enjoy most is keeping in contact with patients who have different problems, different social life, different medical health problems, and many of them come from foreign countries. And that also is very interesting to me, I mean, I’m very interested in history. The other thing I look forward to sometimes is visiting speakers. We have visiting speakers from different countries who come and give talks to our cardiac society, to the medical association. So I look forward to that because it’s not just the medical side, there’s a social aspect of it too. Dr Toh takes a more traditional approach to work, keeping medical records in a cabinet, rather than on a computer He also does not have a computer at his work desk Can you imagine a patient sitting in front of you? You’re talking to him, then you look at the screen all the time, trying to trace his records and all that. To me, that’s a little bit impersonal sometimes. I mean, I’d rather talk to the patient in the face.
00:02:21
Dr Toh also relies on a diary for his appointments I use it for recording friends and patient’s names, IC, phone numbers and of course medication they’re taking, to remember. I write down my appointments, meeting times and all that, which is of course nowadays available on handphone but I find it easier with a book because I can flip through it much faster. Dr Toh does not have any plans to retire just yet His family has left that decision completely up to him Never mind, you come. Come tomorrow morning Any time, it’s all right. Okay? Okay, see you, Nancy. Bye bye.
00:03:19
I would believe that, from a health point of view, you should continue working if you can. Doing nothing, retiring at home watching TV is very unhealthy. But unfortunately, in certain areas, certain professions, you have no choice. Surgeons have to retire earlier because they depend a lot on their technical skills. But in the case of a physician, we are really most of the time prescribing and giving opinions. My sons are happy that I continue working. I’m not a burden to them. One of my sons is a doctor, so if I keep up my medicine, I keep in closer touch with him. They never say anything. They left it to me completely.
