The Great Divide

Thanks Su Yin for the lab coat.

Placement started yesterday. For the next one month, i'll be slugging it out at the nearby public hospital.

Someone once told me that the public health care system here is in a mess but you really got to experience it for yourself to say anything.

I have never seen so many sick people in my life. I mean, i've been to hospitals and visited people at wards. Man, i've even experience the death of a loved one. But all that did not prepare me for what i've seen over the past 2 days.

I saw a guy without a nose yesterday. I went to the wards for a visit (it was outside visiting hours so we had special access), and there were beds in the lanes with patients on them. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists alike were running all over the place and everything just seemed very chaotic. There were just too many patients with not enough people to look after them. It was like a scene from 'Pearl Harbour' minus all the gory part but yea, you got the picture. Today, I was privilleged enough to help out at the 'warfarin clinic.' Warfarin is a drug which needs a lot of attention (severe consequences if used wrongly) and counselling and hence, pharmacists can spend a long time with patients making sure they know how to take the drug. Every Tuesday, the medical clinics at the hospital are converted to warfarin clinics. Patients on warfarin come and get their condition and medication checked. There were just so many of them with not enough staff to look after them. So much so that some of us students were roped in to help. I was so busy the whole afternoon.

I saw so many people, most of them poor and uneducated and yet they were on drugs which needed careful attention and evaluation. The staff there did their best to ensure that each one was properly taken care of but they could only do so much as there was just simply too many patients. I saw a graph which showed the percentage of admissions each year the hospital, over the past 4 years, the numbers ranged from about 90% to 130%. More than 100%, can you believe it? The hospital is running above its capacity.

Sigh.

There are so many people who needs help but only so few who can give them. Really, the people that needs help the most are in public hospitals. They are sick, poor and uneducated but that dose not mean that they do not deserve the proper medical attention that some of us are so fortunate to have, yet we sometimes fail to provide it for them. I am reminded of my Best Friend who left His Home to come to help the Sick and not the Healthy. I am so thankful for Him.

My mum told me that when you enter the medical line, you will go through experiences like this. You feel so sad for the people and you feel so inadequate with yourself because you just simply can't help them all. (Parents = wisdom, hehe) She shared with me a story about a little boy.

One day, a man was walking at the beach and he saw a little boy picking up clams who were swept ashore. The little boy, knowing that they would die if they did not have water soon picked these clams up and threw them back into the sea. The man asked the boy, 'There's just so many of them, no point doing it, it's just too troublesome.' The little boy agreed but still continued doing it. The man asked him why was he still doing it. The boy just simply replied, 'I can only do so much, but at least, it made a difference for that one.'

Yes i'm only a student but my heart aches when i see all these people and i guess i can only do so much but i pray and hope that it will 'make a difference for that one.'