Re: Hospitals in Pakistan
There's the good and the bad everywhere, sazzie. I have many relatives who are doctors and currently practising in Pakistan and they are the sweetest people ever! My khalu, for example, has a cabinet full of gifts that he receives from his patients as a token of appreciation. Who does that unless they are truly thankful. Any interaction that I've had with doctors in Pakistan has been pleasant so far.
You also have to realise that the doctors are under immense pressure, they have to attend many patients everyday so you can't expect them to sit down with every patient and have a friendly chat. They just want to check on the patient, update their reports and move onto the next one.
But you make some valid points, some of them do have a cold attitude and no matter how stressed they may be, they have to realise that they are supposed to be making people feel better. And what's with the nurses asking for more money?! Did you guys have a chat with any of the seniors at the hospital? They won't realise there's a problem unless we tell them. I would've also asked the nurses to piss off if I was you if they felt oh so miserable taking care of my grandmother and I would've arranged a private caretaker.
Hey Barbie, true, they are under a lot of pressure, hubby's grandma, behji, she had to have an operation and it meant moving her to a different hospital (owned by the same guy though) which was supposedly a VIP hospital, more expensive so shouldve had better standard of care. only difference between it and the first hospital was that the rooms had tvs and heaters in them,and in general the hospital was much less busy, i believe there were just 2 people admitted there, one of them being behji. it was in this hospital where doctors and nurses would come and leave without even giving us an update on behji.
my dad in law felt bad at upsetting them lol, he said we shouldnt make the poor angry and so went and gave them some money. there was actually a sign in the reception area instructing people to report any helpers asking for money though.
If you have bad experience, it doesn't mean it is actually wrong. Pakistan have one of the best Doctors & Medical Institutions, granted they are costly and not reachable for majority of population.
It's more than one expeirence, not just this expeirence with behji, but in general my opinion from having visited different doctors and hospitals over the last few years.
I'm sure there are definietly some good hospitals and good people in this profession out there, just havent met any of them yet.
No one is doubting the quality of doctors, its the attitude that stinks. I've been in and out of different hospitals because of my grandfather and the nurses really could not care less. I've spent most of my life living in Saudi Arabia and my experiences in the hospitals were really pleasant, the nurses (mostly Filipinos) were always nice, warm and caring and that is the sort of attitude a patient needs. In Pakistan it does not matter which hospital you go to, the nurses are always rude and uncaring, they will snap at you over the smallest of things wherever you go. The government hospitals have terrible hygiene and the most expensive private hospitals get away with all sorts of malpractice.
I think a little of this has to do with the patients' attitudes as well. No one follows patient visiting hours, one patient in the hospital has his whole khandaan sitting in the room with kids and everything.
Totally! we actually complained about the nurses taking their time to attend to behji, they werent even busy either, they were actually just down the corridor in an office reading magazines or playing with someone's child. when we would ask them to come and see behji, theyd take their damn time doing it. once we complained to the doctor that owned the hospital, the nurses came more regularly but one of them was really angry with us and actually came storming into the room to argue with us. after this each time she came into the room she came wearing an angry expression.
lol yeah i agree with what you said about visiting hours, during the day we'd have loads of visitors. i dont know if there was any policy in place about the number of people allowed in the room,there didnt seem to be.
basically they are all OVERWORKED and UNDERPAID....because in good private hospitals (those which pay good to their employees) i haven't seen much problem.......
this was supposedly a good and also private hospital, maybe we just had bad luck, dnt know.
wo bohat thak jaati hain bechari
