Achieving Happiness

I haven’t written in a week,but I’ve had so much to write (more like rant and rage) about in the interim.

I’ve spent the last few days watching over my mom in the hospital — the Philippine General Hospital to be specific. My sister Majalla insisted that mom be confined either at the Makati Med or St.Luke where,my sister said, the amenities were a thousand times better and our mother would be more comfortable (this in keeping with our departed tatay’s wishes that we do everything to make sure his wife would always be taken care of,etc etc); but in the end it all boiled down to where mom’s doctor mostly kept hours (along with the other creme de la creme doctors still practicing in the Philippines).

Kahit ano daw mangyari, nasa PGH pa rin ang pinakamagagaling na doktor sa Pilipinas.

Anyways, it’s been something of a nightmare. The true plight of the nation and the Filipino people can be seen and analyzed after an hour or two’s stroll through the halls of what’s touted to be the premier public hospital in the country. Staying in PGH or being a ‘watcher’ for a patient there also makes one achieve a shocked understanding of how backward, neglected and sorry the national healthcare system is.

Walang bulak.

Walang thermometer.

Bibili ka ng sariling syringe.

Isang buong araw ang dadaan bago bumalik ang resulta ng bloodtests mo.

Two days in advance ang reservation para sa ultrasound;isang araw para sa ibang radiology tests gaya ng x-ray.

Isang oras ang pila sa admissions kahit para sa payward. Isipin na lang kung sa charity ward ka– pasko na, nakapila ka pa rin.

Tanggal ang mga pindutan ng elevators.

May sariling utak ang mga gulong ng mga trolley at wheelchair:hindi sila susunod sa iyo kapag tinutulak mo sila;kung pakanan ka, pakaliwa naman sila.

Tangke de gerang typewriter ang ginagamit sa admittance office pag ginagawa nila ang records.

Ang dilim ng mga hallway (talagang nagtitipid. Kung ayaw madapa o bumangga sa pader, magdala ng flashlight).

Nagninisnis ang mga kobre kama,kumot at punda.

Sa kaunting bilang ng mga duktor at nars, bawat isang bisita nila ay nagmamadaling tiglima-o sampung minuto kada pasyente.

When something went awary with my mom’s IV drip (the blood started to go up the tube),we couldn’t immediately locate a nurse and my sister and I panicked a little and said that hell, we should start learning to do the tasks that nurses do like pricking for veins, taking out blood, and  straightening out tangled IV tubes).

I’m shocked and angry,and to think that I didn’t even go to the charity or the emergency wards (although I’ve been to both years ago, to the latter when my dad was rushed to the emergency because of an allergy attack; and to the former when I went to visit a neighbor’s little daughter).

I don’t blame the nurses, the doctors or the administrative staff of the PGH for the sorry state of the hospital. Why should I? I know they get peanuts for working there, and I know that the remaining doctors have already pledged some sort of commitment of service to UP Manila,the Philippines,or the Filipino people and that’s the main reason why they stay on instead of flying off to LA or San Francisco or Canada and study again and then later practice there. 

Again, gad, aren’t you sick and tired of hearing it from me?, it’s the effing government, the effing government that’s to blame for this holocaust of a healthcare system. If the PGH is in such a horrid state, we can be dead-certain that the situation in the hospitals in the regions and provinces is much, much worse.

And I haven’t even written anything about the cost of medicine! Holy heck, the antibiotics alone cost P1,245 per IV bottle,and in the last few days,we’ve bought at least six. In private and out of our mother’s earshot, my sister and I joked tiredly,"Juice me, di ka mamatay sa sakit,mamamatay ka sa shock sa laki ng babayaran mo pag magaling ka na…"

Definitely  not Grey’s Anatomy hospital conditions. More like the situations faced by M*A*S*H*s during the Korean war.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 5:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.