The other day I happened to go to a hospital for a minor consultation. I was told that the doctor will step in at 10:00AM. I was there at 10:05AM and was the second patient waiting for the doctor. There was a big board at the hospital reception which reads - 'Kindly do not try to use your contacts, money, muscle power, political power, relationship or anything else to disturb the sequence of the consultation'. I was impressed.
It was 11:00AM and there was no announcement yet giving the whereabouts of the doctor. After some more time when the hall was totally filled with the patients, the staff slowly made a call to the doctor. All the doctor has to do to get to the hospital was to get into an elevator and press the 'G' button.. Yes, the doc lives upstairs. They have made the patients wait for more than an hour. I realized the trick here is, had the doc come at the promised time 10:00AM, I will hardly have a wait time of 5 minutes and so will the rest of the patients. All the chairs in the hospital wont be made proper use of. And he wouldn't appear to be a very busy doctor.
The doc has pasted lofty principles on the wall to impress people. However, the strategy of making the patients wait for their TRP ratings totally disappointed me. I would in fact call it poor organizing. The role of being a doctor in itself is a very respectable one. You are serving the people and you have the ability and luxury to serve them without causing them the pain and trouble of waiting for you unnecessarily. So Mr.Doc make use of the facility and make it a USP that the maximum wait time in your hospital is 15 minutes or something of that sort and save people a lot of trouble. U will still remain the same busy doctor!!
u didn't blast that doc...?
ReplyDeleteIt has become a favourite thing for young, impatient and beautiful people like you to bash Doctors, who are regarded as the noblest professionals. First of all you didnt mention your problem or what specialist you have visited. I assume you are not a doc and would be doing something very unimportant to most of the people on earth. There are a few speciality departments in medicine like MD(gen med) and MS(gen surgery) and a few Super specialities like DM and MCh wherein, the departments are huge and usually consist of 50 to 100 inpatient beds. All inpatients are inpatients coz their conditions are critical and is the first thing docs look into as soon as they arrive at hospital. The rounds usually start around after 8AM, corresponding to the time after the breakfast and after all the patients have eaten food, meds, and the nurses have to be ready with all the early morning blood values like the Sugars, BP, etc. Then the docs have to personally attend to each of the patient with all the concerned staff and enquire about their well being, examine them for progress of their condition. Depending on the number of patients and the critical nature of their illness, it may last from 30 min, for docs who dont get any pts to 2-3 hrs. Then the docs come down to the OPD(out pt dept) i.e people who are not very sick, just like you. The physicians only have to see out pts and prescribe stuff which they usually do twice a day ie morning and evening, and then take care of the inpatients, for which they do three rounds a day. But surgeons on the other hand, apart from these two things also have perform surgeries, which may take anywhere between 1-10hrs a day, some surgeries requiring even longer. In all this flurry, they manage to get some sleep while travelling, or while in the toilet. And I assume you dont even care if a doctor is married and needs to spend some time with his wife and kids. It is impossible for many docs to have anytime outside hospitals. I have given you the examples of Gen med and surgeons only. There are other docs you may encounter like gynaecologists since you are a pretty young impulsive girl, ENT coz you have Ears nose and throat, Ophthalmologists coz U have pretty eyes, paediatricians if you already have kids and ortho docs coz u have bones, dermatologists coz u have skin. Of these, ENT, Ophtho, dermat are the only depts which are less intensive. There are various other non clinical docs whom you may never see.
ReplyDeleteSo, you will have to wait until the doc finishes his more critical inpatients first. In case you need any emergency medical attention, then you always have emergency dept or Casualty dept in any decent hospital. If your condition is not so bad, you will have to wait regardless of you being the queen of England or Sonia Gandhi.
It is such a sad story when educated people(?) like yourself question the loyalties of Doctors. I am sure you would've done some BSc or BA and assume that everyone in this world has enough time just because you dont have much work.
At the same time, there may be a few doctors who are very careless. So, next time, mention it a little more clearly about your situation when you write in a blog. Coz assholes like chiranjeevi and other actors have done enough to damage the reputation of medicine in the eyes of public already.
I do know a lot a pretty young girls like you who think the whole world revolves around them and everybody must pay attention. Thats not your fault really. People must've treated you like that till now. But Docs are a different breed dear. Outside hospital, a doc will treat you similarly like all other boys do. But inside a hospital, you are just one sick female who needs help. So, next time, behave accordingly.
As for that idiot who replied above, who calls himself "room no.14", I am sure i'll put an old scalpel to good use if I ever see him.
If you are a blogger, next time, use some brain too. Not just your .....
Thanks for posting by.. I know that the doctor profession is quite noble. I assume you are a doc.. Whether I do unimportant things to the people or significant things, as a person holding a noble profession, your treatment towards me should remain the same. The time for the consultations have to be prescribed considering the time spent with the inpatients. Or atleast, its a minimum courtesy to keep any person waiting for you informed about any further delays..leave alone the doctor patient scenario. The doctors are not seeing the patients free of cost. We are paying you how much ever you prescribe and we have every right to atleast know how long we need to wait. Time is precious to everyone. You might hold your profession at the top and by dignity of labour every person considers his/her profession equally respectful and have good things to do in life rather than just wait in the hospital for no one knows how long.. All I am saying is atleast give an estime that it would take x minutes for the doc to see you and the person is at his liberty to stay there waiting for the doc or go and finish some other work in the mean time.. If a doc is married and needs to spend time with his family, let him do so and reduce his consultation hours and give more space to his private needs. Who is stopping him from that?? If a doc is really extending his work hours to the extent that it is costing him his sleep, and doing that as a service, yes.. I will salute to him..
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