Health care in Manglishia

MERITS OF MERITOCRACY

2010-05-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

Whilst watching American Idol, I realized a certain connection evident on the effects of ‘condoned mediocrity’ (prevalent in Manglishia) as opposed to ‘meritocracy’ in bringing up family, running a company or even running a country.

There are young people from every conceivable background signing up for the audition with full confidence that they are the new American Idol. They believe, with every fiber of their body that they are THE ONE. They fantasize about being on stage and singing to the world. They come with their entourage of family, friends, husbands and wives cheering and encouraging them all the way. Then they sing, unfortunately, out of the thousands only a few could truly sing, whereas thousands truly thought they could.

The blistering comments from the judges evoke disappointment and sometimes even rage. They are confused and bewildered at the comments. But the truth of the matter is these youngsters were deceived over a period of time by the people they trusted. Being conditioned to accept their abilities as the best, they remain mediocre. They were led to believe that they were talented and fantastic singers; mediocrity was unchallenged by family and friends. These wannabee singers were actually set-up by the very people they loved and trusted. In a state of manipulated awareness and in thinking of mediocrity as excellence they have inadvertently altered the singer’s perception of excellence. They feel confused, deceived and may have a hard time coping with the new reality, as they awaken from some kind of deep hypnosis.

Could correct education, training, encouragement and constructive criticism have made a difference in the results of some of those disappointed? Yes, and perhaps opportunity was sadly missed to develop many deserving talents that were amongst the disappointed thousands.

- It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

STATE OF THE ART HEALTHCARE, A SATIRE

2010-05-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

We encounter the words ‘cutting edge’, ‘state of the art’, 5 Star and 6 Star even, what does this all mean to a one legged ex soldier and a decorated war veteran. If you want to know, I didn’t lose my leg in the war protecting Manglishia, I lost it in the healthcare system and that’s another story. Coming back to the gobbledygook titles hospitals give themselves (Or do they?), Do they get accredited by some ‘body’ like the CEO or the OWNER, or their PR consultant? I don’t know lah, in this satire all also can.

I believe that to improve the quality of healthcare in Manglishia we need to recognize our thumb sucking, brown nosing or arrogant attitudes and face the reality that profit and shareholders interest isn’t everything. We have a responsibility to make Manglishia a better place to live in. Nowadays getting sick, old and dying is a matter of affordability, and the mere thought of getting sick, old or dying is stressful enough to make you feel sick, old and dying.

We Manglishians can never win, can we? What in Georges name have we done to Manglishia? In case you are wondering, I’m calling God ‘George’; do you think that will confuse Him? Hmmm…, well, that’s another story too. Most people including I say we are too young to retire, it means that we are actually too broke to retire, and we cannot afford to get sick, old and die. Ok, enough of this macabre visit to reality. So how do they grade hospitals? I don’t know…. do you?

QUALITY HEALTHCARE- A SATIRE

2010-05-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

(A private conversation with myself, one part of me a patient the other a nurse, yes, a split personality if you want to call it that)

When one is in a hospital, private or public, you see them walk about in green, blue, pink and white and all the shades in between. From cradle to grave and all the shit in between they are apparently there to serve those who are in need of nursing care. “What! Shit in between? ………Apparently?........... How dare you speak like that of a noble profession? Do you know what we go through every day? Who are you to judge us? What are your qualifications? If you know nothing about healthcare… don’t talk like this lah” said the nurse.

Well, I am a qualified patient, yes I was sick, I am sick and plan to be sick in the future, and so I do qualify to comment don’t I? I said. “Ok lah! You old man what is your problem?” Well, nurse I didn’t to come to the hospital today on a wheelchair just to piss you off. “Ok, you have a problem pissing. Ok, go to counter 20 for your blood test first” she said before I could tell her my real problem she got the nurse aide to hurriedly push me to counter 20 and left me there.

I don’t know! This is getting complicated; I said to myself, me and my sense of wit, damn, that really didn’t help!

Self propelled, I roll to the counter the last few feet and I see the nurse chewing gum and purposely not noticing me and my sneaky wheel chair. “Excuse me nurse would you help me?” maybe she didn’t hear me, so I repeated it loudly; she ignored again and didn’t even look up. I know I was heard because over a hundred other patients heard me. A while later grudgingly she stretched her hand out for my file, never once looking at me, seemingly busy with other things. “Nurse would you please put me ahead of the queue to have my blood drawn because I’m a sick old man”. “You think you only sick old man ah! Got so many others also they come early one” she said in Manglish.

At that moment I wanted to standup and smack her across her face, but having just one leg made that just a fantasy, well, and it was fun while it lasted.

Two hours later my blood was taken and by then I really did have a pissing problem and to the toilet I went, as usual I hobbled into the toilet par excellence, water, water every where and stinking like ‘nobody’s business’. Well, I must confess that I made a bigger mess of it before I left. Try standing on one leg, with one hand holding ‘you know what’ aiming at the toilet bowl. Why didn’t I sit you say? Well, you should have seen the toilet seat. Apparently the contractor for cleaning the toilet was holidaying in Bahamas with his dirty toilet money.

So I questioned the nurse within myself ….What is nursing care? What is quality nursing care. Is intelligence and hard work alone enough? With tears rolling from my eyes she replied, “You see nurses in this country are never respected no matter what they do. There is a hierarchy built into the system. We get orders from the top and have to carry it out, and if we protest we are put in the freezer or was it cold storage, I’m stressed, I can’t remember now, because the thought of going against the top may result in me being transferred to a remote part of Manglishia. So that is why lah!” she said, wiping the tears from my face. “We do not have the ownership of our own profession”. Stop right there young lady! I said, earlier you spoke in Manglish and now in almost my standard of English, how did that happen? I questioned. “Well, we just act stupid lah, it helps me keep my job and then the patients also think we are stupid one, so they fed up and stop asking us so many questions. But we don’t compromise on the treatment and nursing care, but some got lah with bad attitude like every where else.” she confided.

But I am really sorry to have treated you that way, ‘care’ should be the operative word in nursing and that has to come from the heart where love resides. I will, from now be more thoughtful and caring and by the way we have some good news, your leg is healing well and the bad news is we are very sorry for amputating the wrong leg.

What the @#$%!