I recently had to find out what the "little dot" was all about. And for this I've decided to use one of the country's best medical house .. err hospital. I've heard all the bad stories about the services, as well as success stories that soars the reputation of their expertise and facilities. As penniless as I am, I had to go the public side of the hospital to get the "free" treatment. Oh yes there is another side of the hospital which offer more or less the same treatment or facilities but you have to pay a hefty amount, just for slightly faster and so called more efficient services.
True enough for the penniless, you have to wait for hours to see a doctor (a trainee doctor mind you), in a small treatment room where two doctors share a small table treating their own patients back to back at the same time. So if you don't focus to your doctor, you can actually hear how the other doctor treats his/ her patient and the whole patient medical history. I was baffled for a while when my assigned male doctor wanted to perform "the procedure" on me. Oh no.. no.. I somehow requested (in disbelief!) for a lady doctor. Luckily there was a lady doctor in the room who I believed is their supervisor. So what she did was perform their routine and told the trainee doctor her findings behind the screen. And the trainee doctor recorded the necessary in the report. So what happened was, I had to go for another screening as they couldn't figure out the "little dot". I had to come another day for another screening. Fine.
The day came, I endured a 1.5 traffic crawl to the hospital with an empty stomach and a full bladder. Only to reach the hospital late and being told by the nurse that the doctor had filled in the wrong form to do a screening on me. A wrong form!! I had to go back to the doctor and asked him to fill in the right form. That's what I did, kind of rudely... I actually burst into his room (with a patient in of him) and demanded him to fill in a new correct form. He did and he apologized for what was obviously his mistake. Even that done I still had to come another day (perhaps endured another long traffic crawl, and long queue at the treatment room) as by the time he finished filling in the form, the time had passed (yeah, they have allotted specific time only for some specific treatment).
This was a week ago. I'm supposed to go there again ... but I dread it thus postpone the appointment for the next three weeks. Perhaps by then I've recovered from the "ordeal".
My whole point is, should I am not as penniless as now, I would have gone to a private medical practitioner where I will save my time, my energy (my anger), not to mention be in a nice smelling place, smiling nurses, and a big comfy private treatment room. But I am so cannot afford the private treatment at this moment hence the ordeal which is nothing to many but a big hassle to me. And another point is, this is the sad whole truth the penniless had to face, the inefficient service, the long wait, the uncomfortable treatment room. I was lucky to encounter smiling faces but I've heard of many cases of rude staff as well. And I have yet to relate others' ordeal in chronic cases where all you need is pull some cables and wallaa... you get the best treatment at lower service rate or non at all. Yeap, the whole sad truth in this country (perhaps applicable in others too?). Oh what can I say now.. the penniless.. as you know it.. no money no talk. I hope there's nothing wrong with me and the little dot is just a dot. Otherwise I'll just wait by my deathbed or go thru the system that is definitely not "penniless" friendly..
