Monday, August 11, 2008

Long wait at hospital

SO accompanied his mother to the hospital this morning for an eye consultation. The appointment time was supposed to be 9.45 am. But she had to arrive 30 mins early for an eye check up.

SO and mother were on time. In fact, they were early. And they finished the check up by 9.30 am and started waiting to consult with the eye doctor.

They waited and waited and waited. And they just sat there and waited.

The eye specialist finally saw her on 1:10 pm! They waited for about 3 and a half hours just to see the doctor for less than 10 mins!

The doc said her eyes were okay. There's nothing wrong with her eyes. Just old age. No cataracts, nothing. That lucky bitch. Here, I am, prime of my age and already I had mild cataracts.

Okay, back to bitching about the doc. 3.5 hours!! Her appointment was at 9.45 am and it took so long just to see the doc. What did the doc do in between?

If the doc see a patient she was suppose to see at 9.45am only at 1.10pm. Then the patient at 11am would have to wait till 3.30pm?

Did the docs have any concept of time? Did they know the very purpose of making appointments? What's the use of setting up appointments to see doctors when the doctors did not fulfill that part of their obligations?

Frankly, how would you think the docs would react if the patients arrive 4 hours late? The nurses would screamed!

But it's not as if the doc dun see any other patients during the time. SO said there were patients in and out of the door every 10-15 mins. Where did all these patients came from? Were they patients of the day before? A few days old?

Where's the use of the appointment time schedule? It's hardly accurate!

I knew a doc who previously worked in these public hospitals. He said there was no urgency, no incentives to see as many patients. The docs have a number of quota of patients to see per day, but that quota was pitiful low!

These docs dun make extra money for seeing extra patients. They could thus afford to make patients sit and wait for hours. It's not as if the patients would run away or complain. What's the use of complaining? The nurses would said the docs were busy. Please wait.

For private doctors overseeing their own business or clinics, time is money. Every min counts. Every min is a dollar. Hence, there is this urgency to speed up seeing the patients. The greater the patients turnover rate, the greater the revenue.

But doctors at these general hospitals were given a fixed range of salary. They dun get special incentives, bonuses or money for seeing extra patients. There's no extra push!

This friend further confided in me that most docs there were jaded. With no incentives, hardly any competitions, they tended to slag in seeing patients. Some even like to sms, call friends and family, chit chat, flirt with nurses etc. These very docs lacked motivation!

Poor us patients. What can we do except to be at the mercy of these spiteful doctors?

No comments: