5/02/2007
A public hospital driven by passion
While we continue with the spin on Greed as the driving force in our economy, maybe we should try to develop a different formula, a return to the past when life was simpler, when the motivation in life includes things like passion, charity, compassion, service, selflessness etc.
Though many have already subscribed and become strong believers in the new virtue of Greed, I believe there will still be people, or a few people, who will not be seduced and would still want to do a little goodness just for goodness sake. And they will also be some who have plenty and would want to give a little to charity in time or in money.
There are many public hospitals today, run by volunteers and voluntary organisations. Though some have also subscribed to Greed, many still stand tall as what charity is supposed to be. Perhaps we can experiment with a govt initiated public hospital driven by everything else except Greed.
We only need to convert one of the leftover HDB block to start with and the doctors and nurses can come from contract professionals where our dollar value has a comparative advantage. And we can have more young doctors posted there to break them in. And these can be supported by the very successful doctors in private practice who can volunteer a few of days a month to the hospital for free. Yes, they are not green monsters that only think of money. Many are great and generous people who would not mind contributing a little to society.
Such a hospital may not have the best of everything, but it will help to protect the life savings of the less able. And no need means testing as the socially conscious would find visiting such a public hospital as a stigma. Only those who really need such a service, or refuse to pay for world class services will be found visiting public hospitals. At least the people will be given a choice.
Would there be fear that if such a concept prove too successful that govt hospitals will lose their patients and income? There is a market for every segment of people. Hospitals that find making money important will have their own patients. Public hospitals will have their own patients.
Can we provide such an option for the people instead of dictating what is good for the people and what price the people must pay?
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7 comments:
Have you heard of Annalakshmi Restaurant?
Perhaps this restaurant should be a model. The founder believed that food is sacred and customers are like gods. The Indian vegetarian restaurant that has outlets in China Town Point and Amoy Street is thriving although it allows customers to pay any amount they deem fit. Most of the staff are volunteers. Yet they give such excellent service... mainly because it is given out of love and service.
hi oriental express,
yes i have used their service. and i pay what i normally pay for my meals. and i also see many paying much more.
there are goodness in mankind. not all are easily intoxicated by greed.
Wow! Can we take money out of the register? We need more money to fix the opposition and you darn bloggers.
hi pap, welcome to the blog.
don't get too excited ok. i am excited by your presence. finally you are here: )
cheers.
I say forget about trying to change people — be they greedy or selfish or whatnot.
The idea in healthcare os top become more effective, and that encompasses many steps.
1 Ensure that people are encouraged to keep themselves healthy. A friend in the medical fraternity summed it up when she once told me: "Most people who get diabetes are fucken arseholes and deserve it. They don't look after themselves, smoke, drink, eat like pigs, don;t exercise... and then holler for help!" I can't disagree with her there.
2 Remove "barriers to entry" for alternative healthcare philosophies — like natural medicine, traditional medicine etc. More choice means lees monopoly (more competition) form "western" medicine, which means lower prices for consumers.
3 Encourage research by lowering barriers to experiment on humans for new techniques, new therapies etc.
Remember, 20-30 years ago if you had glaucoma or cataracts, it would only be a matter of time before you would be blind. Nowadays, you could be in and out of hospital in 48 hours. In the last 30 years, medical science has advanced leaps and bounds and continues today.
As healthcare becomes more efficient and effective, costs will fall. Hospital sizes can be reduced, saving public funds or taxing people less.
The market is the MOST BENEVOLENT of all because people are not forced to change their "morality" just because some blog-owner who's holier-than-thou like redbean judges them as "greedy".
"...some blog-owner who's holier-than-thou like redbean judges them as "greedy". by matilah
i feel so good that matilah now thinks that i am more arrogant than him in my postings. the quality of my posts must be getting better and now he is second to me in talking down to other bloggers.
i take that as a compliment. now matilah would have to work harder to be holier than me : )
Forget it redbean, I won't engage you in any sort of competition (unless there is real money to be made — and then I will make sure we both "win").
I realise my "winnings" in the instant I post here and in other blogs — and thus seek nothing further than the sheer (selfish) joy of the moment in exercising my expression of ideas in writing.
But hey, if you want to bother yourself with some sort of "competition" with me based on purely subjective and arbitrary standards you create in you own muddled mind, go right ahead and knock yourself out. What you do with your life, especially on your blog is entirely your own business :)
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