Through the Mind’s EyePrivate hospitals: expectations vs. reality [Archives:2008/1131/Community]
Maged Thabet Al-kholidy
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Nowadays, private hospitals are everywhere in Yemen in nearly every city and in many rural areas and villages. Firstly, we thank the Yemeni government for caring about people's health, which isn't to be expected in public hospitals. We also must thank the investors who are doing a favor for the entire Yemeni nation by offering patients medical facilities.
Private hospitals are founded in Yemen to be – as they claim – better alternatives within the health system. Public hospitals still exist and operate, mostly dealing with those of low social and financial rank – in other words, the poor.
At times, a poor person no longer can bear his ill health, which usually worsens in a public hospital. Therefore, he constantly talks – to himself – about private hospitals, where he thinks his health will improve. This is his only aim due to imaging something that reality may not offer.
A poor individual such as this may sell his wife's gold, his house or other precious items for nothing more than the sake of his health, building up an imaginary world in which he dreams of proper treatment and health care in such private hospitals. However, the pain may not afford this person the opportunity to think about the best hospital, as, to him, all are good.
Finally, he goes to a private hospital near his home so his wife and children won't need bus fare when they want to visit him. However, the moment he enters the hospital, he starts comparing between his expectations and reality.
Crossing through the gate, he's received by an ever-smiling receptionist who requests payment before asking anything further. The woman's smile both before and after receiving this money raises the poor man's morale. She then shows him where to find a specific doctor.
Upon reaching the doctor's crowded waiting room, it reminds him of a similar situation – maybe in a public hospital. He asks someone what's going on. “Nothing, we're just waiting for the doctor,” the person replies.
It's 4:30 p.m. and the doctor still hasn't arrived. “What's wrong?” the poor man asks, to which another responds, “Nothing, we must wait.”
All await the arrival of the doctor, who, once he does arrive, immediately tells the patients to prepare their receipts showing that they've paid and a woman begins calling patients' names to see the doctor.
The poor man observes that patients exit the doctor's examining room very quickly, each one exiting with a sheet of paper. He assumes they simply have finished quickly and received a prescription for their medicine.
When it's his turn to meet with the doctor, he feels like he'll have no more sickness afterward because, after all, this is a private hospital, not a public one, he observes.
Before examining him, the doctor takes his receipt and immediately begins writing down the tests that must be done. “Go quickly and do these medical tests,” the doctor instructs him. The man tells the doctor that he's already done many tests at the public hospital, but the doctor replies, “That's something else. We can't rely on those.”
So, he goes to the medical laboratory where he pays for all of these new tests and awaits the results. He then returns to the doctor's office where patients are running to the lab and the pharmacy. Taking the man's test results, the doctor begins writing on a sheet of paper and suddenly instructs him to go and buy some medicines.
However, after purchasing the medicine and beginning to take it, the patient begins to feel abnormal and he doesn't know what to do. A friend visiting him the next day advises him to go to another private hospital.
So, off he goes to another hospital where the doctor requests he do the very same tests. He tells the doctor that he's just done these tests, to which the doctor replies, “Well, we can't rely on those results.”
Following this second batch of tests, the doctor examines him again and starts writing on a piece of paper. “Buy these medicines,” he instructs, but once again, his health worsens upon taking them.
He was advised to go to yet another private hospital. However, he did this twice, but in vain because every doctor said something different and no two doctors gave him the same results.
This is the reality that poor man faced. His expectations regarding private hospitals as modern technical machines with qualified staff and standard medical procedures weren't realized, but these types of hospitals do exist.
It's actually fair to blame these types of hospitals because they belong to investors, who care more about profits, just as it's fair to blame Yemen's health system itself, which has the authority to regulate them.
However, a portion of the blame also should be placed on citizens themselves because they will accept anything – even if it affects their health. This is simply my advice to readers because our health isn't something for sale but rather, something to care about. Everyone should know who is dealing with his or her health so that any future affects can be avoided in the earlier stages.
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