The Harsh Reality of Mandatory Medical Checkups in a Broken System

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Hello dear readers and frequent visitors to my blog.

Today, the topic I’m going to talk about is mandatory medical checkups.

In life, there will be various opportunities where, due to different situations, we will be forced to see a doctor.

Personally, I’m no different from the average person who doesn’t like going to the doctor, but this is for a very particular reason.

In my country, where I’ve lived my entire life, Venezuela, there’s a very specific characteristic when it comes to healthcare services. Here, they’re worse than bad.

Aside from being a third-world country, the state-run healthcare services—speaking of the free public services that the government is supposed to provide to those of us who are native to Venezuela—are of terrible quality.

This happens because corruption is always involved.

The supplies given to hospitals through the government are often looted by the same doctors and staff who work there, and in many cases, by high-level corruption, where those in power take over concessions and contracts for purchasing materials, medicine, surgical instruments, equipment, and concessions for building hospitals, which are overpriced.

That money doesn’t reach the public, and in 99% of cases, it comes from the taxes that we, ordinary citizens, pay.

This tax money isn’t invested as it should be, but instead ends up in the pockets of these corrupt individuals, and isn’t invested in healthcare, resulting in deplorable, low-quality services.

This makes people not want to use these services.

Speaking from a very personal experience that I’ve shared before, the times I’ve gone, I’ve had very bad experiences because they take hours to help me.

The last time I went, when I was attacked and had my face split open, it took 8 hours for them to attend to me in the public hospital.

This means I was bleeding for 8 hours before receiving attention, getting anesthesia, having all the wounds on my face stitched up, and having my tooth repaired, among other things.

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How is it possible that someone of my age, an elderly person, had to go through all this—8 hours of suffering in pain, watching the suffering of others who were there, precisely because the government didn’t have doctors on duty at the time I went?

It’s supposed to be a hospital that operates 24 hours a day and should have doctors, a constant flow of nurses, and specialists who attend to everyone at all hours because there are emergencies. It’s a multi-story hospital with the capacity to serve thousands of people daily.

But this doesn’t happen, precisely because of this problem.

If mandatory medical checkups are enforced and people have to go to these healthcare services, obviously they won’t go.

They won’t go because they don’t want to endure hardship and suffering—it’s more than obvious.

Besides this, there’s the psychological aspect of how these doctors often mistreat and speak rudely to their patients, as has happened to me.

They’ve asked me why I waited so long, called me irresponsible, and so on.

And how could I respond? I tell them, “Well, what could I do if you made me wait here for 8 hours to be seen because there were no doctors?” “No, but you should have gone to another hospital.” And how was I supposed to get to another hospital if I’m a person with no resources to move around and I was injured? I couldn’t fend for myself, I was bleeding on the street, I couldn’t get to another hospital, and I had no one to take me.

In fact, it was the police who brought me here, who helped me get here because I was bleeding, I couldn’t even see (my eye was so swollen I couldn’t open the eyelid), and I couldn’t move to another location.

So, there’s also this aspect of doctors needing to be humanitarian.

I don’t think it would be a good idea to punish people with jail or fines for not complying with mandatory annual medical checkups.

I know it’s very important to prevent health problems and reduce long-term damage when someone is sick, because detecting the disease early can cure the problem.

But there’s also the other side: we need to provide quality healthcare services, and this includes the way doctors treat patients, with empathy.

They need to treat people with kindness, especially when they’re elderly or older adults like me, and with empathy so that people feel they’re truly being cared for and not criticized for being sick or for delaying treatment because, well, they didn’t have the financial means or money to do so.

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Every person faces difficulties in life, and here, in this country, the financial aspect is very tough.

We’ve been going through serious financial problems and a crisis for over 25 years, which prevents people from accessing healthcare, because curing an illness, having surgery, or treating something as simple as, in my case, diabetic foot, requires a lot of money.

To give you an example, I have diabetic foot that’s been bleeding for four months, and the treatment I need costs about $200 a month, while I currently earn only $60 a month.

I can’t afford this kind of treatment at a private clinic, and I also can’t do it at a public healthcare institution because going to a public institution means losing 8 to 12 hours in a line, where my foot will be bleeding, where I’ll be uncomfortable, and where, in the end, I’ll have a doctor who will criticize me for being sick and for having this condition.

You’ll understand that I’m an older person who isn’t willing to be scolded for decisions I’ve had to make in my life and simply for being sick.

I believe that if someone is sick, they need help, not criticism or questioning for decisions they’ve made in their life.

I think mandatory medical checkups aren’t a positive thing unless they’re approached from an educational perspective and the government provides quality healthcare services, where doctors have empathy and truly treat all their patients with care, so that people feel encouraged to get these annual checkups, which are really important and prevent problems.

But I know this is a utopia and it won’t happen in countries like Venezuela, where the solution to this crisis seems endless, because we’re not living, we’re surviving, and we’ve been doing so for many years.

In my case, I’ve been surviving for over 40 years, and I’m truly very fatigued, very tired of it.

Recently, I was talking to a good friend from Pakistan about this, and he knows I’m going through these serious health and financial difficulties, with no way out, no way to be mentally healthy, because no matter how much you want to, we’re human beings and we’re subject to these kinds of pressures. There comes a point where you’ve tried everything and you can’t find alternatives anymore, after years of trying to save yourself.

Things start to lose meaning, and depression creeps into people’s lives.

I believe all these solutions can be achieved through education and immediate action by governments and those in power.

Maybe if more private institutions stepped up to help and contribute their grain of sand to make life easier for those of us who don’t have access to healthcare, the outlook would be very different, and I wouldn’t be speaking to you in this depressive state I’m in right now.

Thank you very much for stopping by my post and appreciating this content.