Wassup, Doc?

My shoulders and arms hurt once again. Meaning, my tendinitis is back with a vengeance. Suffering from pain, I can't help but remember that 3-day stint at a local hospital last January.

I was brought to the hospital due to severe back and neck pain. Shucks, I couldn't even pull myself out of bed. Imagine a robot, that, I was. Anyway, my attending physician suspected arthritis so I was referred to a rheumatologist for co-management. So I waited and waited. To my chagrin, no doctor showed up. Not even a resident. I remember asking the nurse if the rheumatologist was informed that a patient in severe pain has requested his services and was told that the message was relayed a couple of times. On the third uneventful day, my attending physician sent me home with pain medications. I was then advised to see the rheumatologist for an outpatient consultation.

Of course, I never did. I hated the fact that he kept me waiting without bothering to notify the nurses that he wasn't even remotely interested in my case while he did his rounds and attended to patients with far more complicated cases like SLE and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Of course this is pretty much explainable. The more complicated a medical condition is, the higher the professional fee. That simple. You don't need a Ph.D. in Research to figure that out.

My case in not an isolated case. I know of a doctor who pushed expensive surgical procedures within a few minutes of seeing a patient for the first time. The patient complained of shooting leg pain and spinal surgery is to be scheduled ASAP. And when he realized that he wasn't going to get what he oh-so-desperately wanted, he lost interest, never visited the patient again. And yes, you guessed it right, he had the audacity to charge an exorbitant professional fee when the hospital bill arrived.

But the thing is, in Philippine hospitals, the physician is likened to a lion, the king of the jungle, the leader of the pack. No one dares to point out his mistakes, make him realize how despicable he is, and remind him that inasmuch as he wants to, he cannot play God.

Tsk, tsk. So delusional.