Thursday, March 05, 2009
1:08:00 PM
Recently, I've had a rude awakening. Really.
I have come to realised that health is so important, not because it allows you to do so many things, but because it is way too expensive to upkeep should you fall ill and have to be hospitalised. No doubt, I was warded in a private hospital and it would cost more, but I highly doubt that being in a public hospital will cost any less.
I had gone to the hosiptal's walk in clinic for some quick fix as the medication from the company's doc weren't effective. However, this visit to the clinic had me warded at the end of it. I was adamant about not staying over cos at the back of my head, the cost of it freaked me out, but I think the doctor made the right call cos I was really unwell and medical attention was needed.
Admission was quite a pain cos the nurses had to inform me about the charges and once admitted, a specialist was called to attend to you. For me, my doc appeared within 10 mins of me being in my bed and I understood from her that they called her back to work. I felt sorry for her then, but after looking at my bill, well... I paid for it. The nurses were nice and tried to make me feel at home. I had opted for a room with another patient in it and that was a mistake cos throughout the night, her beeping device kept going and at some point in time, it sounded like the straight line. I was constantly freaked out. I didn't sleep a wink.
In the morning, I watched the hospital work. Nurses will wake you up with breakfast and your doc shows up. For my case, I pleaded to be discharged and I say, it's the best thing i did for myself. There was no way i was going to get any rest in there. As it was a religious hospital, I had the religious nuns coming to pray for me and the patient services officer dropped by to say hello as well. I must say that it was very different from my last stay in hospital. I was in a public hospital then. But with the world changing so quickly, so must healthcare. These seem to me like their way of retaining their customers, their way to maintain KPI and it is scary cos when I am ill, the last thing I need is for the docs to think of how to milk $$$ from me. I had a blood test and I couldn't understand why I needed that.
Whatever it is, after watching the world go by, some tv and entertaining a visitor, I went ahead with my discharge. The bill for my night's stay worked up to the cost of an air ticket to London and some spending $$$. So, there, my holiday for the year went up just like that.
At the end of it all, I just want to say, take care of your health.
Labels: hospital stay, ramblings
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