We left Hutton Lodge early this morning to sample some Prawn Paste Chu Cheong Fun at a stall (Kedai Kopi Soon Yuen) along Jalan Kuala Kangsar. It is said to be one of the best in the island. I ordered a big portion for myself and wolfed it down in minutes. The prawn paste is ‘kau-kau’, it combines well with the special chilly sauce that comes with the ‘chu cheong fun’.
Satisfied, we then headed off to Hospital Pulau Pinang for Round Two of the PACES course. The morning kicked off with Dr Tan Bee Eng’s (Rheumatologist) excellent lecture on how to examine the locomotor system. She stressed the importance of sticking to the examination sequence through thick and thin! “Do not let the subtlety of clinical findings unnerve you, always follow the routine during inspection (deformity, swelling, muscle, skin and nails).” In retrospect, her advice makes abundant sense and is one vignette I will not forget!
The candidates were then whisked off to the various Station 5 substations. The mix of cases was pretty good. Interesting examples would include Paget’s disease, leprosy, erythroderma, psoriasis with spondyloarthropathy, necrobiosis lipoidica, polyarteritis nodosa (wicked!), pretibial myxedema and dermatomyositis!
Dr Chan Lee Chin in Skin station and Dr Tan Bee Eng in Locomotor were outstanding. Looking at how they conduct the tutorials, they are indeed formidable teachers. I learnt things that I would not otherwise have acquired on my own self-study and which could be crucial in determining whether I am a pass/fail candidate.
I was genuinely delighted with the in-house MRCP PACES handbook which is provided gratis to all participants. It is a collection of writings and records of various important clinical cases with suggested bedside approach and discussions. It also documents the anecdotes and first-person accounts of real life PACES experience by the authors themselves. First class material!
Overall, the course is a valiant effort by the organizers. It was certainly useful to a maiden PACES candidate like yours truly. For the affordable fees (RM500) I paid to attend this course, I got more than I bargained for.