i guess by now you heard about the guy who went to cgh with an 8cm gash bled for 7 hours until he fainted because of overcrowding in public hospital.
4 weeks ago, i went cycling with a 'mixed' group of people just friends of friends 8 pple. 4 i met for first time. One was girl who drove family's mercedes whom one of my friends befriended from some online chat or something. We rented bikes and were on our way. We were only 10 minutes into our cycling when accident happened. We were on the cycling path then the guy in front turned to bedok jetty...the mercedes girls skidded and haad a deep cut near shin about 5cm long..not as bad as a gash like the 7 hour wait case but deep enough to bleed continuously. If i had such a cut i would just press the skin together put plaster and tahan until clot. But this was a girl and there seem to be quite a lot of bleeding... Someone suggested that better go hospital and get stitches.
Me and another guy volunteered t take her. Initially we wanted to take her to changi hospital but the girl said she wanted to go to this hospital called east shore hospital which was also quite near. I never go to east shore before because i only only go public hospital so i had to google map the route to the place.
When we reach east shore hospital there was hardly anyone in the a&e only a few pple who appeared to be waiting for pple already being treated. From the time we took the mercedes girl into east shore to the time the doctor saw and treat her was less than 5 minutes. My friend and i waited outside while she received treatment
i have been to a&e of public hospitals many times sometimes old folks in my neighborhood fall break their bones or somebody's kid kena food poisoning and need treatment ...many times i have t insist they go to a&e because it is very expensive for them ....one neighbor's kid vomited until what looked like bile cane out with vomit but parents were poor so they didn't want to bring him..i said must go and i would pay for everythng ... Carried the kid downstairs and call for taxi but when i got to the public hospital a&e we still have to wait several hours for the doctor....it is always long queues and hours of waiting at a&e in public hospital.
Back to mercedes. Girl. We waited for her for about 20 plus minutes as the doctor stitched up her cut. When everything was done, we went to pay ...i was just standing next to mercedes girl when the cashier said, "your bill is $512"....i wanted to say "$500 plus for a few stitches...are you bloody out of your mind..." but mercedes girl calmly took out a black credit card dunno from which bank but has the word manhattan on it and paid the cashier,
that was the first time i go to a private hospital a&e and its like a different world ....of the privileged while the rest of us make do and struggle with 7 hour waits and faint...the guy who died from dengue also waited for hours until he gave up and went to gp..,...no may be he died because he was poor...
As for mercedes girl ...she is indeed a nice person she took the trouble to find my phone number to call and thank me just for accompanying her to east shore hospital...i found out her family is a big player in the furniture business. I certainly don't blame her or begrudge her for the wide difference in healthcare...nothing at all to do with her.
It is the govt policy that divided healthcare due to aspirations of becoming medical hub for the rich to earn more profits by turning public goods into a for profit service, when you do this ordinary singaporeans have to auffer the high cost of your desire to earn more profits. It is things like this that amplify the effects of inequality in income and this divides our society ....
