What Happened to Our Hospitals?

I was visiting my friend, who was then warded due to dengue fever. As I entered the ward, I was puzzled by the sight before me. There were two beds with patient in the middle of the ward; some beds were arranged so closely to each other, and my friend’s bed was like kind of isolated and an old Malay lady was sitting by his bed. In short, the whole ward was very much disorganized.

I guess my friend should be able to answer some of my questions if not all. And so he explained, the old lady there was actually waiting for her son, who has gone for x-rays. Not really comprehending what he means, I just forget about the matter and start asking about his well-being instead. Half-way into our conversion, my friend’s “neighbours” were back. It was when I finally get the idea of what’s going on. The truth is that my friend wasn’t really isolated at all. It was just that both the beds beside him were pushed away when I arrived. Now that the beds are back, they are just less than 1 feet apart from each other. A ward, which is supposedly accommodating 6 beds, is made to accommodate 12. A over crowded environment is definitely not suitable for recuperating patients.

Just when we were discussing about the miserable state of our government hospitals, an unexpected thing happened. A nurse started shouted at a patient, and the agitated patient yelled back. A verbal battle then followed. It is understood that dealing with the temper of patients is part of a medical staff’s job and sometimes the situation can be much stressing. But aren’t our nurses trained to handle with their emotions before they became qualified nurses? To stop the quarrel from going on, a medical officer soon walked in; with unkept facial hair and messy attire.

Just a one-hour visit to the hospital and it was that much that I saw. My poor friend, who spent 3 nights there as a patient, sure has a lot more to say. And so, I left with quite a number of questions in my mind. What happened to our hospitals? Is the increasing number of patients too much for our hospitals to bear? Where is the professionalism of our medical staffs? Or shouldn’t we just don’t expect too much from government hospitals? What can we do to help rectify the problem?