Hong Kong Patients

Sometimes the patients that we see are pretty unreasonable. I was on-duty at the accident and emergency department last night. Throughout the whole night we had a steady stream of patients seeking help. Around 3 to 4AM in the morning a woman came to the AED with abdominal pain. Her vitals were normal and stable and she was walking around without any problem. Anyway around 30 minutes into her wait, her husband came aggressively saying his wife’s in pain and he asked to be upgraded. The nurses explained the procedure and the that his wife was 3rd in line anyway. But he kept on pushing aggressively and then started verbal abusing the staff. Eventually the nurses had enough and caved in and bumped his wife up. I had just finished seeing another patient and was writing up the papers. This man kept on standing outside the cubicle and was staring at me writing up. Naturally, I was uncomfortable because this agitated person was staring at me. I politely asked this man to accompany his wife instead of standing outside the cubicle. Instead of accompanying his wife whom he claims to be in pain, he comes yelling at me telling me not to tell him what to do. I honestly don’t understand what these people are thinking. Anyway, these are not poor people. According to their address, they’re actually quite wealthy. After the examination during which her abdomen was soft, and I was unable to elicit any tenderness The woman asked if she could have an ultrasound (because she saw the ultrasound machine in the cubicle). Anyway, I’m not formally trained to perform ultrasound so had to say no. Eventually, I gave her a diagnosis of urinary tract infection which I don’t think she was satisfied with. I gave her the option of further investigation by admitting as an in-patient but she declined.

Honestly, I don’t know what people expect from the public health care system. Our waiting time is probably one of the shortest in Hong Kong already. She probably didn’t have to wait more than a hour. They seem to expect that if they’re in pain, they have to been seen immediately. Yet if they decided to be seen in a private hospital, they don’t complain when they’re not seen immediately even though they paid way more than what they pay at the public system. I can tell you that most of the people attending the accident and emergency department is probably in pain, so it’s highly unlikely to be seen immediately even though you’re in pain. I once had a finger fracture and I was told at the QMH AED that I will probably been see in 4 hours! They demand an extensive investigation even though they only pay HKD100 (around USD 12). They don’t understand that after a 10 minutes consultation, you can only have a provisional diagnosis.

I reckon we should just not subsidize healthcare, let people know that they’re really getting a great service! (That’s just the radical side of me talking)