Many years ago, I was working in a town
near the east coast in India. One day I fell sick and wanted to see a doctor.
My friends suggested that I go to a nearby hospital and they accompanied me.
When we reached the hospital I looked at the list of doctors displayed near the
reception. I wanted to see someone in General Medicine. I noticed that there
were three doctors under General Medicine. One was a senior doctor with an MD
and the other two were junior doctors with MBBS. I told the nurses at the
reception that I wanted to see the senior doctor. They told me that he was not
available. I asked them when he will be available. They said he would be back
after about one hour. I said I will wait for him. I noticed that they were
disturbed and looked at each other. Then they said that he was available and
that I could go in and see him. I saw the doctor. He examined me, made a
diagnosis and wrote a prescription. Before leaving I told him what happened at
the reception. He seemed surprised but did not say anything.
Later on, when I thought about it, I realized
that the nurses at the reception may have been trying to help the junior
doctors. Most patients would prefer to see the senior doctor who was also more
qualified and the junior doctors may have been getting very few patients.
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its nice the nurses were forward thinking in trying to help the junior doctors...its also nice that going to see a doctor seems relatively straightforward and simple...over here it is a tangle of matching your healthcare benefits with the doctor in the practice...one can't simply go to hospital, unless an emergency and people who are "sick" are not considered emergencies... sigh i wish for simpler and more reassuring times for us in this country...
ReplyDeleteseeing a doctor is easy here but nowadays there are many patients and even with a token there can be a long wait. most people here don't have health insurance and have to pay for the services. govt. employees and their family get subsidized/free health care.prescription drugs can be bought at drug stores without a prescription. i think they are careful only with sleeping pills.
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