Victor's Travel, Health and Eating blog: April 2009

It appears that these days, a fat wallet is a prerequisite for getting good medical attention.

IF you’re uninsured and have minimal savings, you better pray hard you stay healthy for the rest of your life. This is because if you’re not financially well-buffered and suffer a serious ailment like cancer or a stroke, turning to the public sector for help may be a very depressing affair.

For illnesses that are less life-changing, waiting to see the doctor is more of an inconvenience. We have heard of the never-ending queues for patients seeking outpatient treatment for fever, migraines, spurs, hypertension or a fractured leg, among many others. Yes, there is torture, especially when one is experiencing real discomfort and pain. But what is worse is when a patient is diagnosed with an advanced-stage disease, and treatment is only available six months down the road due to a long waiting list.

Not only does the patient feel real physical pain, he also experiences fear and hopelessness because he has no financial muscle to improve the situation.

Meanwhile, due to the nature of public hospitals, doctors are often unfamiliar with the medical history of the patient, and this can sometimes lead to ineffective treatment.

Last June, when my father, who was already diagnosed with fourth stage lung cancer, suddenly complained of a severe headache, we admitted him to the local district hospital in my hometown. For three weeks, the doctors merely gave my father symptomatic treatment, which included lots of Panadols and painkillers. They even decided that he was suffering from dementia, and it was nothing serious (apart from having to nourish him back to strength!).

During that period, my father lost 15kg and his condition deteriorated. Finally, we admitted him to a private hospital in Penang, where they diagnosed (within two days) that the cancer had spread to his brain. My father underwent a shunt operation, and this had bought him an additional four months of life.

Let’s just say that the doctors who treated my father in the district hospital suspected that his sickness was due to cancer. They would still have to write a letter to the nearest General Hospital (GH), say the Penang GH (as the district hospital did not have an oncology unit) before my father would be allowed to be admitted for treatment.

Again, my father would have had to wait a week before being tended to. Would it be wrong of me to say that if I had depended solely on the public sector, it would have been no different from me digging my father’s grave?

I agree that private hospitals in Malaysia are on par with their peers in Singapore and Thailand, but it is still a service provided only for those who can afford it.

Yes, our doctors are good and they are equipped with the some of the finest in technology and skill. Nonetheless, it is definitely misleading to say Malaysian private healthcare is affordable for Malaysians.

With a disease like cancer, you probably wipe off your medical insurance with just one round of treatment.

How about cancer survivors who go on to live for years? How many people can afford to put aside RM1mil for their medical bills? Worst still if that person is retired and has exhausted his medical insurance and savings.

As an aside, I would like to refer to Dr Albert Lim Kok Hooi’s article To collude or not to collude which appeared in Sunday Star on March 3.

In his article, he says it is “unthinking, mind-numbing and inane” when family members or relatives decide to hide the seriousness of the patient’s disease from the patient, to protect him.

I am thinking, doesn’t the patient’s immediate family know the mental state of the patient better than the doctor? While some patients want to know, some simply aren’t mentally prepared for such devastating news.

If the patient is already a negative person by nature, would the family be wrong to hide this piece of information because they want him to have a better quality of life? As it is, most patients are already vulnerable and not in the right frame of mind when confronted with illness.

By going against the family members wishes and telling the patient the bad news, doesn’t the doctor also burden family members? After all, it is the family that will be taking care and supporting the patient on a daily basis. In my father’s case, my family was adamant that my father would not be told that his cancer had spread to his brain. Our oncologist was kind enough to respect our wishes.

What a huge difference it made. As my dad was still in relatively good shape, he spent the last four months happy, and doing all the things he used to do before cancer. There was no depression, just renewed happiness and love. I don’t see how his last days could have been happier had we told him he wasn’t going to be around much longer.

Lin Say says that if you are one of those who believes that health is wealth, then you better get rich or die trying.

Source: The Star online