Many Sri Lankan Private Hospitals. – By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
Despite all the consumer items going up in prices on a daily basis, so are the channeling services in private hospitals. It varies from hospital to hospital! For example , especially in Colombo hospitals, there are rumors floating about that the Nawaloka hospital is facing the brink of bankruptcy, but once one enters the hospital , it could be seen full of patients in every corner all the time!
In Nawaloka there is a particular charge at the rate of Rs.4000.00 ( for a professor of Nephrologist (the one who deals with one’s kidneys) where the Hospitals charges vary from 1300 to for other specialists. This exorbitant amount is known as the ‘Professor’ , a distinguished title which is known for the specialists for this discipline.
This extra charge of Rs.4000, (hospital charge for channelizing extra and a service charge a service booking for the Professor is added to my travelling. What happened to me was that I left home, Thalawathugoda, at 3.00 pm to be at the hospital by 4.30 pm . The receipt mentions that the session commences at ‘estimated’ time of 4.33 pm. I was waiting for nearly two more hours, but the professor did not appear at all! I became furious and changed it to Monday 19-02-2024! I went again on the 19th Monday, and waited for more than one hour but the nurse assigned to the Professor advised me that she could not confirm at what time the professor would come to see the patients.
What doctors should do
Basically, the doctors should be punctual and keep up to the schedule. This is how I feel about it! It will become no sense at all, by keeping the patients until all odd hours for the specialist to arrive!
Patients believe in a specialist, as they are being recommended by someone. The patients have implicit faith in the specialist and by delaying consultation, in the manner displaced above will certainly have a much more effect on the hospital itself . But on the receipt ,the hospitals do state very craftily how to get out with grace!
Also, there is no point in getting ready for the nurse (allocated to the specialist) by taking blood pressure and collecting all records with patients ( in my case various tests were done by a laboratory and was referred to, in readiness with anxiety about my Cardiologist by the Cardiologist. Generally, from my personal experience. Until I retired from the National Health Services in the UK (from the MCA- Medicines Controlled Agency), it depends on Sri Lanka by the specialist to show arrogance by pretending to be the God?
It is also health hazard, for instance those patients who are suffering from Angina or some kind of a heart problem to have to wait continuously until the specialist arrives, because the patient would be stressed to such an extent b and they expect be on time the as the patient has paid what is expected to pay before seeing the specialist! The patient (her stress factor would increase tremendously about the time one has to wait) .It will be a disaster if the specialist does not appear at all, like I have waited for the professor just not to be at the appropriate time!
In Exceptional Circumstances
There are cases where the special the excuse is thrown at every instance. In such cases, it’s the sole responsibility of the specialist to advise the hospital nurses, rather than keeping it to himself. Equally, the Department of Health may be able to put a ‘stop’ to specialists, who want to be ‘money earners’ in order to maintain their day-do-day activities of the so-called doctors extravagantly.
In the UK, all specialists are sincere in their attitude towards their patients and there is the possibility one (patient) could say ‘ it is my body after all, that you are dealing with body because they take an oath (oath of Hippocrates) to serve on all patients in a humanitarian manner!
There should be love and devotion being a doctor in the first place. That
They tell the doctors that they are a ‘ superior lot’ just because they (doctors) generally wear a collar and a tie! It does not make them superior in their vocation but in simple terms but it boils to be that specialists are disrespected by the public as they are bound by the oath they take when they qualify as doctors .
I knew of a surgeon ( Sri Lankan) ,who was nominated several times for the ‘Golden Scalpel Award’ throughout the UK. He decided to operate on a ninety-year-old patient, as he felt that the patient would survive the operation, despite all comments by his colleagues. After the operation he thought he should be successful in a better social life!
Well! A few months later the patient (in Wales) came to see the surgeon with an ‘alarm clock’. All he had to say was that “you gave the time for me doctor and personally him and said I shall in return with the same smilie– Please have much more time for operations of that nature.”
Is it not clear how humanity works in Wales in the UK?
Dr.Tilak S Fernando
