5/06/2012

When doctors waited for you


This is a strange thing to happen. The doctors, dental surgeons and other medical professionals were there waiting to treat you. We used to have only one general hospital and a few clinics to serve the population. The population was smaller and the number of medical professionals too was smaller, and private doctors and clinics were not many.

Those were the times when the medical fees were relatively cheap and the doctors were often found waiting for patients. But their lifestyle was much better, driving Mercedes and living in landed properties still.

Our population has grown and so have our medical facilities and medical professionals. The mentality of the people has also changed. Every little pimple appearing on their backside or a little black spot on the face and they would want to queue up to see a specialist. They would not bother to squeeze out the pimple or scratch away the black spot with a pen knife.

We have several big general hospitals and several big private hospitals today. And the number of practitioners has grown too. We probably have more specialists today than we have GPs in the 60s and 70s. When we made an appointment then it was a week or a few days ahead.

Today, an appointment with a dental surgeon or GP in public hospital or clinic, if one is paying subsidised rate, can be one year or several years down the road. 3 years wait is quite common. But if you tell them you are willing to pay, suddenly the queue is immediately shortened. How much shorter depends on how much one is willing to pay to jump the queue, especially in the private sector.

This is progress. We have more than 5m people and when everyone is willing to pay for good service, the one who has a bigger bank account will get the best service available. No one is or will be deprived of medical services. It may just take a little longer. The medical condition just needs to wait for its turn to be treated.

Could there be a message in a 1 year or 3 year appointment? The first is simply, pay if you can’t wait. Or maybe the condition is just not urgent enough. Or is it another way of telling the patient,  ‘Hope you will be smart enough to go somewhere. Don’t come and waste my time.’ Or it could be another hope, that the patients may not survive the 3 years wait and the problem will take care of itself naturally.

We have progressed, and our way of solving pesky problems has also improved, very diplomatically. If one is unwilling to pay the ransom or market rate, one has to wait for the doctors. 3 years is reasonable, it is subsidised what do you expect? Today we have progressed from having lower quality services when doctors waited for patients, to world class services when patients have to wait for doctors.

8 comments:

  1. A 3 year wait? Not if you are LKY or Khaw Boon Wan.

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  2. When you take a dollar or a million dollars without following the rules that is illegal and it is called corruption. But when you are in power and you enact rules and regulations and you can in following the rules and regulations take as much as you can in the form of high sinful salaries and many immoralistic type of bonuses that is not corruption but rightful entitlement and nobody can fault with it. You see how clever these chameleon politicians are.

    Now nobody talks about ethics or codes of conduct in all the so called high professions like doctors, surgeons, lawyers, accountants - chartered or certified, auditors, engineers and architects and worst still CEOs and directors of companies especially listed companies. Everyone is taking the cue from the authorities or politicians in power throughout the democracies in the Western World and the pseudo democracies in the third world to set their self serving rules for legalise robbing and self approbation. Doctors and surgeons and the medical profession have virtually thrown the medical code of conduct and medical ethics out of the window. So are the same with all the other professions. Now blame who. Of course blame the greedy and immoral politicians , the Pappies who take the political path as a short cut not only to achieve power but to immoralistic wealth and sinful splendour .

    The word 'REVOLUTION' has its rightful place in the dictionary. When the avaricious politicians and those so called professionals at the apex of society knew no bounds in exploiting the people and the country they will surely meet their fate in a revolution. Only nobody knows when a national revolution will take place. But when it comes it will be worst than a tsunaby or typhoon and it will sweep away into oblivion all those sinful figures at the apex of society.

    Southernglory1

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  3. You are not the only asshole living on this planet. And everyone gets some kind of condition sooner or later; conditions that require medical attention.

    Even that pimple on your arse had better be looked at. It could be skin cancer. Or it could be nothing more than a love bite your gay lover gave you before he deliciously sodomised your smelly anus.

    If your condition is not serious, why should you tie up valuable resources in the PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM? If you are such a cry baby and want attention now, go to Mt Elizabeth, Gleneagles, or some other private medical facility run by hard working, multiple degree holding multi millionaires. They are in it for the money, so if you speak their language -- MONEY -- chances are you will get the medical attention your inner cry baby requires.

    Or you can become a medical tourist and take your sick ass to Thailand for e.g. where the service is wonderful and way cheaper.

    Or if you don't trust S'pore doctors, you can pay much more and take your quickly degenerating body to Switzerland, the USA or Australia. Rich Indonesians frequently do this, so why can't you?

    Medical care, like education, pension and housing should be treated as "luxuries" to encourage people to save money, buy insurance or pay attention.

    Having the govt provide these things (and more) encourages THE ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY and incentivises people NOT to pay attention, because "Govt Will Provide".

    People will sooner spend $1000 on a new iPhone, $ thousands on watches, or $$ at Prada or $$$ on some huge consumable before they do so for their health and well-being because "Govt Will Provide".

    Govt Is Love
    Govt Will Provide
    Govt sent His Son to save you

    Amen.

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  4. Maybe dying while waiting could save the patients and their families from being overcharged or worse go bankrupt(extremely poor rather than declared by Court). That may cause them to suffer for generations.

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  5. Actually I was telling only half truth or selective truth. There is another truth. If one can pay for it, there will be a team of specialists at your bedside at your becks and calls.

    As long as medical bills are affordable, there is nothing to worry. All the best doctors will be waiting for you.

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  6. Asai si, buaysai peh(in Hokkien Dialect) meaning in Singapore, it is better to die than to seek cure when sick. This is bcos the cost and waiting time for consultation will make one very frustrated and tormented.

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  7. I agree.

    Some Singaporeans need to be removed from the gene pool ;-)

    As a society evolves, no one is so special that they are irreplaceable.

    The culture is moving forward and changing from a "gimme-gimme" mentality to a "can do" attitude, as the "can do" foreigners are willing to do what the lazy and spoilt locals aren't.

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  8. Wow, wow, wow!!!

    It seems that there is human who think that he deserves to live longer than others.

    Possible, if one is Jissus.

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