It is very painful whenever I see people being denied medical treatment because they can’t afford payment. It is no longer a new story that patients are denied proper medical treatment or they are refused emergency treatment because they were unable to deposit enough money for treatment. In some cases family and friends have to watch their loved ones give up the ghost. We have experienced the nonchalant attitude of some hospitals. Many times I feel for the families running around desperately looking for funds to save their loved ones. I would like to ask this big question: Should saving a life depend on who can afford the hospital bills?
Doctors are often seen as heroes because of the oath they take to save lives. Everyone has this mindset that once someone enters the medical profession, they should be more concerned with saving lives rather than money coming first. Our thoughts are not wrong either; we should also know that this hospital needs financing to run the hospital. The staff needs to be paid; they also need money to buy equipment. Most doctors are not happy that they are turning their backs on patients. Hospitals are not run on goodwill; they need funds to manage them.
I totally understand the feeling. If someone so close to you is denied treatment because you are unable to pay the bill, it can be emotional. We should try and delete this mindset that luxury is only available to the rich. Both the poor and the rich life are valuable, to be honest; nobody should lose their loved one because they can’t afford surgery. A patient who is in a critical condition should not be left unattended to just because they don’t have money to pay bills.
There comes the problem: most of the hospitals have commercialised their hospitals; they don’t care about the lives of their patients. It is so understandable that hospitals need money to run, but operating more like a business is very bad. There are cases where humanity should come first. When a case is called an emergency case, it should be treated as one. The doctor should be more concerned about saving the patient's life before discussing payment. This post just reminded me of my neighbour who lost his wife. He brought in his wife in a critical condition instead of the doctors attending to the woman; he was after the husband depositing money to the hospital. By the time the husband ran around to get everything done, the wife had given up the ghost.
This keeps happening almost all the time: patients lose their lives because they were unable to deposit money. The government should channel their investment more on hospitals and health care so that these doctors will not depend totally on patient money. For us to actualise this, health insurance should be made so cheap so that everyone can access it and enlighten people on the importance of health insurance. Currently some hospitals are running partnerships with some organisations that help settle the bills of the patients.
As a doctor you should be compassionate; remember that those patients have people waiting for them at home hoping to see them survive.
This is my entry on the weekly prompts #hivelearners #hl-w219e2 topic
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