Hospital Blues

Patients normally get admitted in those hospitals where their doctor recommends. Five star doctors will send you to the most commercialized hospitals where the treatment could give you one more heart attack especially if you are not covered under health insurance.

Such hospitals are more like hotels where you can stay comfortably. There are good facilities for visitors too, a beautiful cafeteria, a large luxurious lobby and even a beautiful garden. Rooms are large and spacious with flat screen TV and a comfortable bed for the visitor.

Then there are hospitals for middle-class people that might offer very good treatment but their services plunge.

There used to be time when patients were given fresh set of clothes everyday during their stay at hospital but not anymore. Nowadays the hospital clothes are given to patients only few hours before they go to operation theatre and one more day after that. Rest of the stay one is expected to wear their house clothes. That’s because of cost cutting, so although the hospital bills escalate, there is poor service.

All hospitals expect the patients to bring their family/friends to look after them. The hospital staff is responsible only for doing their rounds into the wards, recommending the medications and reporting the progress to the resident doctor. Relatives have to buy the medicines, take care of the patient and be there with the patient 24/7. This becomes very difficult because family and friends have their own things to do, in his fast pace life, not many have time to nurse the sick. Therefore you either appoint a private nurse or get your own maid.

The patient is encourage to vacate the room as soon as possible to make beds available for the new patient. Most of the hospitals rooms are occupied and one has to book rooms in advance.

The general wards are in worse conditions where you will find some people even sleeping on the floor. One bathroom shared by eight patients and their family/friends. Sometimes the hospitals may not have proper water supply too.

Class division is very wide. While the rich enjoy the comfort and luxury, the poor suffer under unhealthy circumstance. Pain is common to both but the treatment and care varies from person to person.

(Un)Pleasant stay in the Hospital

Nobody likes to stay in the hospital.

It’s a miserable place to be, for the patients and also for the visitors, who devote their extra hours from their busy schedule to their loved ones. The nurses may be good or grumpy, it depends on their work pressure, but most important thing for patient is to pass their time in the best way that they can. Pain is constant and the more attention one gives to the pain, the more it refuses to go. The best way to find relief is to divert one’s attention from pain to something more interesting.

I had a misfortune of spending a week at a Hospital at Mumbai. This hospital is run by nuns and priest, so it is assumed that it could be the most pleasant place to be.

It was peaceful in certain aspect.

Early mornings, there is Mass in the praise of Lord Jesus, the patients are blessed, there are hymns and sermons, then the Christmas carols or devotional songs that keep the mornings peaceful.

The hospital has a rule that TV and Radio is strictly prohibited. I understand such restrictions because noisy distractions may disturb other patients if you are sharing the room.  But if there is pin for charging your mobile or other electrical appliances, then the hospital should have no objections for using such services.  Right?

I was happy to charge my mobile and keep in contact with my family and friends.

I was also in contact with my virtual world through social media. It kept me busy reading posts and blogs of my friends, news on twitter, poems and stories on social forums or playing scrabble with my friends. The few hours that I spend on my laptop were blessed distraction from my severe pain.

Until

A nun visited my room and saw me using my laptop.

“Are you doing some official work in the hospital?” she asked

I smiled and said that I just passing my time.

Two minutes later, the head nurse came to my room and asked me not to use my laptop in the hospital.

Ridiculous!

I wanted to know the reason for her senseless orders; she lost her temper and told me that I must pay Rs50 for the electricity I was using at the hospital.

Isn’t the use of electricity included in the room service?

I have used the electricity at the government offices, doctors’ waiting rooms, at the malls, at the airports, at public places and even during train journeys.

Nevertheless, I was willing to pay if that is what she suggested but she refused, saying, “I said you are not allowed to use your laptop in the hospital and if you wish to charge your laptop, send it home for the recharge. Nobody on my floor is allowed to charge their mobiles or laptops in their room, it is against the rules of this hospital”

Well! Well! Well!

The rest of my stay was spent staring at empty walls and making friendship with my pain.