An emergency that was not

October 20, 2005
On Monday, I took my brother to the Putrajaya hospital because our local doctor suspected that he had the dengue fever. The fever is dangerous and on top of our minister of health announced that we might be facing a pandemic so all dengue cases should be prioritized – he told the whole country that but it seems that the health monistry staff has differet ideas as to how dengue cases should be treated.
The Putrajaya hospital is situated in the not far from the Prime Minister’s office right smack in the heart of the new capitol. Approaching it, one can be forgiven for mistaking it for a country club or a resort of some sort. It has rather nice arrangement of trees around its compound and there is a playground for children to play in as they parents or family members get treated. The sight somehow gives me a certain confidence, convincing me that we are approaching first world like service standards; a comforting illusion.
We headed for the emergency entrance because that was what we were told to do at the clinic. We remembered that the minister said that dengue cases should be treated as emergency, in the television news, I think. There were few people in the emergency room. The counter person was polite enough. She took my brother’s papers and told us to wait. That was around nine something. A little later the fire alarm went off and there was a long ear-splitting wait for them to turn the thing off.
Still we waited while people who did not seem as sick went in and out. At twelve, I got impatient and asked in rather impatient tones what was happening. The counter person told me that there were short-staffed at the emergency and that we should have gone to the outpatient department in precinct 9 where there were 16 doctors as opposed to only 1, I REPEAT ONLY ONE, at the emergency room. She politely tried to make it seem like it was our fault for not doing that but i reminded her of the fact that she did not inform us of that when we came in and neither did any one else. So I asked for my brother’s papers so that we could go there. It was only then that they took his blood to do the necessary tests. Imagine waiting more than two hours just to take the blood for the tests. the chap who was supposed to do this was happily chatting with various people all the time before.
We went into the waiting room and at two we came back and got the results. I had to go into the ward itself to get it and saw the doctor who wanted to see my brother before we could go home. So it was even more waiting. With me going in and out reminding the doctor and constantly remarking that the queued cards were not parading as they should, we got to see the doctor and then to the pharmacist and y four something we were on our way home.
Still it was a good experience. It was a much needed reminder for us all. The exterior of the hospital did an excellent job at giving us the illusion that we are fast approaching first world developmental status but the emergency room did a better job at bringing us back to the reality that we are still very much a third world country. However, the emergency staff were commendably polite, perhaps its because of the politeness campaign w have running.
This morning, I heard the news that Datin Seri Hendon, the PM’s wife passed away. She was in this hospital until they discharged her yesterday.