Yesterday, I accompanied my mother to the SSRNH Cardiac Centre for her check-up. After 3 hours of waiting there, my stress level went really high up (they’re probably preparing the ground for me as a future patient!).
Her appointment was scheduled for 1 pm. Knowing that waiting time tends to be long there and that there are lots of other patients on appointment, we arrived there at 12.30 and obtained number 16 (not bad, I thought). We settled down in our chairs in the spacious but crowded waiting room not far from the TV set and the windows (there was only one fan working and that, too, in a corridor…).
The noise level was quite tolerable until a hospital nurse decided to tune in the TV to MBC2 for an old Hindi movie that was fraught with shouting, screaming, crying, loudspeaking and of course high-pitched music (it was a family drama that can be summarised as ‘very bad and rich daughter-in-law creates havoc in a simple family’). The sober news from BBC World on MBC3 or the quiet Canadian family movie on MBC1 would have probably been better for resting the nerves of already tired heart patients and their parents. At least I could hang on to a small book on branding I took the precaution to carry along…
In contrast, the nurse in charge of calling patients’ names had an irritatingly low voice, which made my stress level surge up each time she would come out of the consultation room. And I was also appalled by the fact that after the 3 or 4 patients rushed to her upon hearing their names, she would just close the door on them, thus signaling that she expects them to wait dutifully outside the door, ready to dart in as their turn comes. Talk about customer care at its lowest… treated like sheep….
The nurse must have called at least 20-25 names and still nothing about my Mum. When I inquired at 3 pm, I found out only one doctor had been consulting and a second one had come in at around 2.40 pm. And my Mum’s file had been transfered to the second doctor. Guess what, they had not bothered to keep the same order in the files so my Mum must have lost at least 10 places!
Hurray for our public health system!!!