A lot of progress in our medical system to undo
Saturday, 04 March 2017
Thanks for your kind wishes over the past few days.
In the end it wasn't so much the rotten cough and chest infection that's had me laid up - it's a flare up of a 30 year old shoulder injury from the time I was in the coppers.
The pain must have gotten the better of me yesterday morning - so I went to the hospital in the Malaysian city where I'm staying.
I could not have been more surprised by the experience!!!!!!!!
As soon as I walked into the casualty section, a nurse stopped what he was doing and walked towards me. No paperwork, no forms, nothing like that. He just asked me what the problem was.
When I explained, he said, "You'll need to see an orthopaedic surgeon, come this way".
Then he got out a sling to see if it made me more comfortable - which it did, because I'd been carrying the painful arm.
I was almost in shock at the thought I'd get to see a specialist straight away.
Anyway, that's what happened. I had to wait outside the Orthopaedic Consultant's office for maybe one hour while he completed his normal list, then I was straight in to see him.
He was trained in London and a more knowledgable fellow you'd struggle to find.
He sent me straight off for imagining - not one syllable of discussion about costs at this stage and they wouldn't know me from a bar of soap.
After he had the films back he explained the problem
He put a horse needle of cortico steroid into the joint, packed me up with a heap of analgesia and off I went.
Now drowsy but much, much better!!!!!
In the Malaysian system the nurses were all being nurses not administrators.
The doctors were doctoring.
And even the billing department was a part of the pharmacy - so it had a somewhat clinical function.
I can't imagine getting in to see an orthopaedic surgeon within minutes of arriving at an Australian casualty or clinic!
We have a lot of "progress" in our medical bureaucracy to undo.