Many times, I've thought about how the health system operates based on “no money deposited by the patient, no treatment,” and I’ve bottled up these thoughts because the whole thing is hard for me to comprehend.
No lies, hospitals and medical personnel are fully into business, just like every other business in the world. In business, the primary target is to make money, except for those in the charitable sector.
But then, businesses are supposed to put their customers first, or isn’t that how it’s done? If there are no customers, there won’t be any inflow of money, and that’s just the basic truth. Most businesses can actually offer services on credit just to keep the connection intact and the money flowing. Yeah, a lot of these big organisations we see making waves have people they offer services to on credit and still get their money back when the time comes. Just like the kind of business I do, I work on customers’ clothes without them depositing any money first, but they can’t take the clothes without paying, except for those with whom I already have a good understanding and relationship.
Why is the case of hospitals different?
I have pondered on this a lot, and what always knocks the thought down is how medical personnel justify it by saying, “the medical field is different from others.” For God’s sake, what’s the difference?
Maybe this isn’t common in other countries, but in a country like mine, doctors and nurses can refuse to attend to a dying patient unless money is deposited first. This thing freaks me out a lot. The thought alone makes me deeply angry, and I keep wishing I had never found myself in a situation where I rescue an accident victim who is on the point of death, take the person to the hospital, and the doctor refuses to begin treatment just because I haven’t made a deposit. God knows I would cause serious trouble in that hospital.
In the medical field, one of their top priorities is supposed to be saving lives, but as sad as it may sound, business priorities have taken over the situation.
I won’t pretend to know the disadvantageous side of it, which is that after a patient is treated without making a deposit first, they may refuse to pay. And when the hospital decides to keep them from leaving, they may gladly accept it and, in the long run, it becomes a loss and a serious concern for the hospital. This is a very realistic thing in my part of the world. In fact, I have experienced this and I refused to pay too. Hold on, the situation happened in a very odd way and I was left with no option but to say I won't pay the amount I was charged.
Look at it:
I rushed someone to the hospital who was having severe stomach pain. We only went there to check the cause of the pain, yeah, that was exactly what I was told to do by my boss who sent us. But that was my first time taking someone to the hospital. The doctor who was all out for the money, decided to rush the guy and started treatment. I guess he saw I didn't know my way around, so he took advantage of the situation. When he had played drip on the guy, they issued me an invoice to make payment before they proceed. Heyyy! When I saw the amount, I was swept off my feet, I couldn't believe my eyes. I refused to pay because that wasn’t what I was sent there to do. To make matters worse, I reached out to my boss and he also refused to pay because, according to him, he didn’t send me there to admit the guy to a hospital bed.
So in this case, the hospital rushed to save a life, but money was still their top priority.
Thanks for reading.
Photo: MetaAI generated