IN ONE coffee talk gathering of an insurance salesman, a retired banker, a golfer and an entrepreneur, several topics were on the menu and one of them talked about the roads in some barangays. The retired banker was so dismayed about the bridge and new narrow road at Gatuslao Extension that reaches the back part of Robinsons mall in Bacolod. The roadside is so filled up with illegal structures.
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The road is now dangerous to pass, he said, because the local government is so blind in tolerating illegal structures to mushroom one inch beside the road. It is so amusing why local officials cannot impose discipline to make things in order, he added.
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The golfer was telling the rest why traffic enforcers are flourishing around the city streets and there are no policemen patrolling the city streets. He asked where are those bicycles donated by concerned citizens to be used by “cops on bikes.” We see no cops, we see no bicycles, the golfer added.
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But what took them longer sipping their coffee is when the salesman mentioned that being hospitalized nowadays could drain your pocket. He was relating about his relative being hospitalized in city because he had some swollen parts of his body. The patient was placed in an air-conditioned room and got all those blood checks and dextrose and more medicines.
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By evening of day one, the hospital bill is already two months worth of salary of an ordinary employee. By morning he had blood tests and followed by the so-called CT scan to check what is happening to his inner body. That CT scan cost the patient around four months equivalent of his salary.
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By this time there was no conclusion yet on what is the cause of that inflammation in his body. For three days already, the doctors attending to this patient had no conclusion and one doctor said that the patient stays in the hospital until the inflammation dies out. Oh my God, the salesman said, it is cheaper to die than get hospitalized nowadays. Sometimes I feel that hospitals have no mercy to the patient, he shared his feelings.
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The patient insisted that he wants to check out because there is no conclusion to what caused the inflammation. He was so mad donating all his savings to that hospital, he said. But what angered the patient is when a nurse told him that he is set for another CT scan and that would be additional P20,000 to his bill.
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With all these things happening, many are wondering whether hospitals are a nice place to be cured or to get sick more.
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This column says hello to Pamela Cabababsay of DOT Region 6, Johnson Ngo, Ron Walters, Vicente Lovina, Boy Montalbo, Carlin Martir, Bob Justiniani and Karen Gerochi.