Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Lending A Helping Hand

As a very few of you may already know, I work in a hospital (*ahem unfortunately not as a MD like someone). My mum is a retired nurse cum nurse tutor. Hence, our family is basically the reference point for any medical emergencies and illness within our relatives and friends. My mum will get surprise phone calls when everyone were already playing chess with "zhou gong"周公 because someone needed recommendation on which hospital to go to, which doctor to see, what medication to take etc.

Apart from providing "advise", my mum used to help people to get a referral letter for appointments at government hospital where she worked. Since her retirement and me started working at the same hospital where she worked, the burden fell on my shoulders. After a few years working here, I started to get the hang of how a government hospital operates and how to get things moving faster and more efficient in terms of time-saving.

Typically, when a relative or a close friend needed help to seek a doctor/specialist appointment at government hospital, I would ask colleagues of mine (doctors and nurses mainly) to help draft out a letter based on the various symptoms and description given, get it signed and chopped so that an appointment can be made based on that referral letter. FYI, referral patients from private hospitals to government hospitals are charged at least 5 times more expensive than a patients who is referred from another government hospital.

After getting the letter, I would help them book an appointment with the said doctor/specialist with the help of my nurses friends. On the day of the (specialist) appointment itself, I normally will help to get a number early in the morning since I arrived at my office around 7am. After getting the number, I will get back to my work. The purpose of doing so is because the specialist won't start seeing patients until around 10am although the appointment booked is at 8am. Hence, my relative/friend will arrive around 10am, get the number from me, and go straight in for consultation without waiting for 2-3 hours.

On some occasion, I will also help people to get their drugs prescription from the pharmacy. While some of you may not know, in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, you do not have to wait at the pharmacy while waiting for your number to be flashed on the screen. What you can do it, get a number, go eat or do something else (in my case, back to office), then go back to the pharmacy 1-2 hours later. If your number has already pass, you can go straight to the counter and ask for it. The pharmacist would have your medications ready for you by their side.

Oops... kinda went out of topic already. The original topic for this post was "Office Pop-In" and I had to change it because I skewed so much out of my intended story. Sigh! No worry, it will appear in my next post. Anyway, if you need similar kind of "services" as I mentioned above. Please do not hesitate to contact me (like what Jefferene already did) and I would be happy to help in any way possible.

Always ready to lend a helping hand to the poor, sick and needy...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 10/04/2005 11:22:00 AM :: and invited 13 Blah(s):

13 Blah(s) by:  Jason Lioh,  Anonymous,  Anonymous,  Lazymama,  ZMM,  Annie,  Egghead,  Anonymous,  domesticgoddess,  Sue,  Egghead,  Anonymous,  Egghead,

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