942. sore throat

Rant of the day: Sleep... zzzZZZZzzz...

Who says polyclinic is fast now because of the H1N1? I waited for super long lor!!! But it will also be comparable to my family doctor waiting time.

On the registration slip, it shown 9.41am...

But I reached there at around 9.30am and was given a number to wait for registration. Erm... Ok... Nevermind, I'll wait... Called my number for registration and was directed to room 2. This was at 9.41am.

The whole area was condoned off in a white tentage. So that all the flu syndrome peeps don't clutter in the main polyclinic building. Place is very very crowded. It will be obvious that the flu spread faster in this place even though all patients must wear mask. But look at them and their mask... Not properly worn. Might as well don't wear. And then cough cough cough!!! Wear your mask properly can? Seeing this, the staff also don't bother to "teach" these peeps the proper way of wearing the mask.

So what's the purpose of the mask? Or was it just a procedural request by the gahmen?

I waited and waited and waited. 1 hour passed and my butt was aching after sitting so long on that seriously uncomfortable chair. Room 2 was still attending to peeps in the much much earlier numbers because they were directed by room 2 doctor to get an x-ray done for further examination. But how come room 1 have so lil x-ray cases?

Came up with 2 deductions:
1) The doctor in room 2 is too meticulous and prefer a closer consultation.
2) The doctor in room 1 is too bo chup. Just get over and done with the consultation. Next...

The situation got so bad that while I'm still waiting for my number (203) to be called, room 1 was already attending to patient number 226!!! What the fuck!!! A bit too much right?

If x-ray is at such an unavoidable frequency, I suggest NHG to re-look into their procedure on the consultation flow in the pandemic centres. Because it simply defeats the purpose of setting up this centre and let EVERYONE stay inside for hours!!! Then everyone will cross spread the virus. So crap!!!

One way is to set up a separate room for the x-ray cases. Upon getting orders for the patient to take x-ray, once the patient got the result, proceed to wait in this separate room for further consultation instead of going back to the previous one because it simply clogs up the rest of the crowd. By doing so, the 2 or 3 main consultation rooms can concentrate on clearing the common generic cases. This will ease the crowd in the pandemic centre, leaving the more serious cases to pend for their x-ray result.

Whatever the case is, the room 2 doctor finally attended to me at around 11.30am. And in the room, nothing much happened. All I did was telling the doctor my situation. After some usual examination, she advised the usual as well and off I go. That's all? I told her I've got sore throat and she didn't even examine my throat on the inflammation!!!

Left the room and went to the pharmacy for medicine and payment. And there, wait AGAIN!!! Long queue... There were sooooooo many patients waiting there. Only 3 pharmacists dispensing the medicine and 1 staff at the payment counter. Right...

So all in all, I waited for a good long 3 hours plus. By the time I leave the place, it's around 12.30pm. Totally ridiculous...

What an unpleasent trip to the polyclinic... But it's cheap lah...