Down with the flu or Just how difficult it is to be checked-up in Pinas

I have been really sick for the last three days, hence the silence over here in my blog. I unfortunately and unwittingly caught the flu that's been going around here recently. Summer ended quite abruptly for us here in the tropics. This hasty change of weather has been harsh on the healthy and not-so-healthy.

I really hate it when I get sick. Aside from the physical and emotional suffering it brings, it is a pain in the butt and the wallet to schedule appointments with local doctors here.

Take the case of my Dad, who is asthmatic. His doctor is THE top pulmonary specialist in the city. Now, because this doctor's expertise is so heavily in-demand, a long line of people is stretched out on the corridor outside his office. Say, if you call today for an appointment, his secretary will tell you that the doctor will be able to see you three weeks later. It got to the point that the secretary shooed my Dad away and told him to go see another doctor since he wants to be checked-up immediately.

Although the situation is not the same anymore with my Dad and his doc (my father can see him anytime, anyday even without appointments *wink*), my point is this: this current set-up between patients and doctors in this country, to be blunt about it, sucks. The ideal situation would be if you feel sick, you call your doctor, tell the secretary you need to see him, she says yes just come over, and then you haul your sick tush over to the clinic, period.

But in the Philippines, it's simply a hassle getting checked-up by a physician. If the clinic is housed inside a hospital, most likely your doctor's clinic would be more aptly described as a cubicle; very tiny, very fishbowl-like. While outside, there's a long line of sick people stretched out on the corridor waiting for their turn. And inside there's the cranky secretary who gives curt replies. And when it's your turn to step inside the doctor's clinic, what you get is a few minutes of hurried, perfunctory clinical exchange with your doctor. You walk out with a prescription for medicines worth more than what you get paid for in a week at work (that is, if you're lucky) as you almost gasp when the secretary bills you 350 pesos (roughly 8 USD) for that it's-over-before-you-know-it moment with the good doctor.

I'm not saying this pitiable situation is true everywhere in the Philippines. Most likely it's not true for the "high-end" physicians whose clients are, of course, getting what they are paying so much for. But in the provinces, it is. In my case, when I went to see my doctor last Wednesday, I waited for a little over 3 hours before she showed up, and another almost-an-hour wait again before she finally saw me. And all the time, I was feverish, tired, with my nose feeling like it was stuffed with cottons.

Needless to say, the cold medicine cocktails that my doctor prescribed me worked. It was darn expensive, all four medicines. I'm about a thousand and three hundred pesos poorer right now.

Like they say, bawal ang magkasakit sa Pilipinas ngayon. Ha-choo!

Anyway, before I sign off and since I'm on the topic of doctors anyway, I'd like to insert a shameless plug here for my all-time favorite nasty doctor Dr. Gregory House who is currently on the prowl for the next set of elite medical dream team that he can offend, scold and abuse. As of last count, 40 applicants have dared to submit themselves to the grueling, bordering on sadistic "auditions" ala-Survivor style that House will make them go through. It would be fun watching as House breaks them in one by one when Season 4 kicks off on AXN on June 2. Only five will survive. Only the most courageous, brilliant, and practically brain-dead if you ask me, will make it. This is one job interview you don't want to miss :-)