Medical care, general hospitals and private hospitals
Interesting characters : Male mid 70s, very old fashioned, conservative Foochow elderly man.
First of all I would like to thank those who have left me comments. Permit me to reply through this post.
It was like any other day. She saw her children, left home to buy some rabbit meat to cook for her grandchildren and then went to the tua pek kong. Immediately after praying, she had a stroke. She left no last words before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Her husband sent her to a clinic immediately. The clinic sent her to one of Sibu’s private medical facility. They refused to accept her. This is perhaps they felt she was beyond help but refused to release her as the huge bill for being sent to the hospital was as yet unpaid. She was never admitted.
The old man asked for some compassion as he had no credit card with him and it was not his custom to carry huge sums of money every day. He said the bill was no problem but he had to settle his wife first. She needed treatment.No use. The lady at the front desk explained that it was the policy as the medical centre sometimes had problems collecting debts. Meanwhile time was passing fast.
The old man had to rush home, collect his bank book and rushed to the local bank to withdraw some money. The elderly man had no handphone with him and no ATM to use as he is quite alien to these modern contraptions.
He rushed back to the medical facility to find that they had got rid of her by sending to the general hospital during his absense. I could be wrong of course but I presume they didn’t want a dead body on their hands if anything went wrong.
Being of little education, he had a hard time looking for his wife from then on. An enquiry into a nearby medical centre revealed that she was never sent there. We then proceeded to search for her everywhere and finally we landed at the emergency department of the Sibu General Hospital. The guy at admittance asked for our particulars when we enquired about this patient. The ambulance had left her there after giving a name. The hospital had no records at all of her personal data at all other than a name and that she was a female.
I have lost whatever faith I had towards this particular private medical facility. While I understand that money is everything, I think they have gone overboard on this matter. To refuse treatment and to refuse to release the patient to be treated elsewhere should perhaps be made a crime one day in the future.
Or perhaps it is just the work of an overzealous front desk clerk. Whatever the reasons, it is morally wrong. There was never any problem in settling the bill. If they had not wanted to accept the patient, they shouldn’t have accepted her at all. Incidents like these shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Precious time to the patient was passing by while they played policemen and debt collector.
Bengbeng | Miscellaneous, interesting characters
same here also man, no money bye bye lor so must have private health insurance or else line up at public hospital & hope not to die before they admit u.
so far spent estimate rm26200 since saturday nt including indirect medical expenses like care giver etc
It is a sad day indeed when hospitals become business entities, and doctors feel your purse before they feel your pulse. Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath, I wonder…
It is already a business. They have operating expenses that is why they do what they do although i dont quite agree with this
Very sad, that a hospital should have seemed to have lost its main objective of saving and preserving lives. For the sake of all, I feel that you should take this further and make proper enquiry as to whether the front desk clerk was acting alone or on instructions from the management of the medical facility. God bless you and family.
She is still in icu and we can only hope and pray
i feel sad when hear such story. if this thing continue to happen, peoples will think that doctor only save lives for money.
i feel really ashamed and hope this wouldn’t happen again in the future when i step into this field later.
i feel sorry for you and for your family
Money talks everywhere in this world
Well…this is the brutal world that we dwell in. There is “more we and less me”. A lot of private hospitals nowadays are gold diggers. =(
it is a business world
I mean more me and less we!
always very sad to hear this kind of story. hospitals that put money above its very existence reason - to save life.
i dont know how to reply to this comment. i really don’t. i could write some platitudes but recently my beliefs have been shaken
Inhuman, but it seems to be the norm in most hospitals nowadays
Some would not even admit without proper identity papers.
To think we were brought up thinking doctors should save lives above all reasons. Society is changes. No longer are feelings in control. Now it’s MONEY that controls above all.
doctors are by and by good people who play a vital role in society. we must not forget that. but this private hospital system in M’sia must be fine tuned
This is so sickening. I learned this the hard way during my father’s accident. Even if you have the money, hospitals will not accept you if you are in too critical condition.
In Malaysia, you better pray hard you do not need to go to the hospital for any emergency.
Don’t think that what you watch on TV is going to happen here.
we must not give up on the system but work to make it better. but that is easier said than done.
I dun know what to say. I feel so sad and sorry. My heart ache when I read this post (and angry too towards the kind of service given by the private medical centre.)
I have no hard feelings towards this institution. I just pray it doesnt happen to someone else in the future.