PENDING MEDICAL TEST

Pre-employment medical exam went on as expected and as usual I'm not very enthusiastic about Halcyon Marine Health clinic knowing that this clinic is notorious for being a money gouging one. I had no trouble finding the clinic since I googled it a day before to know its location. The directions going there was basically I had to take a bus and drop off in "buendia" area in edsa and walk my way until I reach "Pacific star building" and turn right on the street.

I did finish the usual screenings like ECG, urinalysis , blood lab , x-ray etc. and finished all the test by around 2pm. During the medical exams I still brought along my old x-ray film inside my back pack just in case it might be needed - thankfully the x-ray staff inside the clinic told me that it's no longer needed since I was previously a patient here two years back.

The following day I had come back again to submit my stool sample and finding out any pending test that I had on the medical. (Apparently halcyon's online patients medical records wasn’t that updated until I finish first all the medical screenings., in other words I won't find out any problems until it's too late - so I had to be there in person just to ask them what seems to be wrong. )

The staff in halcyon was very rude this time ., starting off with the security guard which had me going back and forth on the 10th , 14th and 19th floors of the building because of wrong information he gave . The medical staff wasn't helpful as well especially the booth on where I had to ask the staff on which medical test I had pendings with.  Very ill-mannered staff !

Anyway ., I never liked Halcyon medical clinic in the first place because they extort a lot money on their patients. They always come up with all sorts of medical reasons or excuses just they can get away of their fraudulent practices. 

From what I learned I had these "pending" medical test,.  Apparently the medical test I flunked in their clinic.

OPT Otoscopy (basically means get an EENT doctor to remove my earwax)

Dental prophylaxis (means get a dentist to clean my teeth )

Threadmill (apparently I flunked their ECG and had to undergo this test)

Rapid PPD (something to do with a lung test ., )

Overall this is the "appointment" fee they have to charge me , if I show up again on their clinic.

OPT - 100 PHP

Dental appointment - 50 PHP

Threadmill - 1650 PHP

Rapid PPD - 450 PHP  

BACK TO HALCYON

Within a short time , UPL has accepted my application and has endorsed me on its principal "Shell". It didn’t took long that they accepted and I was quickly told via SMS that I should report back to UPL office to get my medical referral slip for the job.

When i reported in the office a couple of days later., I was surprised to see that the medical clinic I will be having for my medical was "Halcyon". The same clinic that I had a hard time with more than 2 years ago. Basically "Halcyon" medical clinic was a scam to begin with and frankly their medical test only cover the initial test ., any succeeding medical test (or test that needs to be repeated) have to be paid by the patient (seafarer). So as a result Halcyon probably flunks most of its patients to squeeze much money as they can. So for people taking medical exam on halcyon , better gets their wallets prepared for the rip off .

If I recall correct the problems I had two years ago on halcyon were these.

Urinalysis

Psycho / IQ exam

ECG
Dental

Now my main problem when I face Halcyon medical clinic will be the urinalysis and ECG (which is expensive) ., which I will counter by already stopped drinking soft drinks and any other carbonated drinks a few days ago - and drank only water.

For the IQ test there's no exact remedy for it, just probably take my time in answering all the question and see how it works ., as for the dental I'm not sure if there's any problems at all but as far as I recall all dental problems had been fixed since last March 2017.  

Most likely it will take me at least three days to normally clear a medical exam., with the assumption that no failed medical test will occur for me. But of Halcyon ., I'd say probably for a month.

SUPRISING TURN OF EVENTS

Things have turned out for the worst for me, not only that I'm stuck here in the Philippines for months now - but my only chances of returning and going back as a sailor have turned me down. So practically I'm unemployed right now. As of now I'm trying my best in finding work.

Recently things had a surprising turn of events ., UPL Shipping Lines (Earlier I thought that they're not interested in me). Suddenly dropped me a call and said I should report on their office for initial interview, So I went and as it goes by - the situation got dragged along with a couple of interview with the company and later on the principal representative. Up to the point that they had collected my documents.

For now they said that I should wait for further announcement from "Shell" principal on what I should do next. It's an advantage that I had to wait to this as a "breather" and prepare on what will be next. The latest word I heard from "sally" in UPL is that its possible that I should take an BTLNG training seminar (Basic Training of Liquefied Gas Tanker seminar)  of some sort , as its possible that I might be assigned to an LNG type of tanker ship.

For the moment my overall impression with UPL is Generally positive, Most of the HR staff in Shell principal is welcoming along with "Jeremy Francisco" on the Passenger HR as well. The only exception was the female head manager (sort of) on the shell principal in which I view as an intimidating and vicious little bitch. Her interview is more like a threat rather than a typical job interview. Can't imagine she was threatening me by saying that job promotions on this shipping company would be very stiff and she implied that on my case ., I have to have at least 4 contracts with them (minimum) for them to just even consider being promoted.

They reason out a ridiculous answer that they wanted a more stable crew workforce and frown on crewmembers who will ditch them out if things went sour. Not realizing that if they wanted a crew member to stay they should "throw in" some perks to make the stay worthwhile (like call center companies do)