Back Pain... (Part 3)

Backpain aside, this is going to be a complaint entry. (You will get what I mean.)

So, I went for my 2nd appointment with a Senior Consultant at NUH. And no surprise, it took us (Mom insisted on coming) about ½ hour to get into the carpark. But again, what’s new. The annoying part was that there were still plenty of empty lots for us to choose from!!! Damn the lousy parking system. Why did it say “FULL” when there were plenty of lots left? What a waste of my time~

Anyway, despite the long wait at the carpark, I was early for my appointment. After the mere 10 minutes wait for my first visit, I was somewhat expecting a short waiting time this time too. Boy was I wrong. I waited for one whole hour before it was finally my turn. Even after I was called into the consultation room, I simply sat inside the empty room, waiting (AGAIN) for the doctor to return for god-knows-where. Wtf~

He finally came (maybe, after 10 minutes?) and when he opened my file, he stood up and approached his nurse and said “I thought you said this is a follow-up case.. I’ve not seen her before.. It’s a new case… why did you say that it’s a follow-up case.” He clearly seemed annoyed about the fact that they screwed up. (Oh, was I invisible?) Well, I’m sure glad they screwed up. I’m pretty sure I will end up waiting longer if they realized I was a new case. Stupid NUH. So, anyway, he went on to discuss the diagnosis. Nothing new, just things I could read off the net – It’s a common condition, no cure, just prevention it from deteriorating , nothing serious, just live with it. Take care of your back, can consider Pilates and one session of physiotherapy for you. Open date for next appointment, if required. Oh ya, lastly, some pain killers and cream for my use too. Period.

As I walked out of the clinic, I requested two items from the doctor – A doctor’s letter (For insurance purposes) and an excuse sheet. The wait at the cashier was pretty quick as I had signed up for a Zoom function in NUH that would credit my bill to my credit card. (So, I get to skip the cashier line and wait for the bill to be mailed to me.) The cashier handed me my doctor’s letter and prescription and informed me that I could get my medication at the pharmacy. I sent my mom to the pharmacy while I enquired about the physio. The nurse was like “ Erm, the doc mentioned about physio? Let me check.” Fine. She came back with a slip of paper and informed me that the physio department will be contacting me about my appointment. I took it and headed over to the pharmacy.

My mom saw me and informed me that the pharmacy’s computer system is down (What?!) and it would require about 30 minutes to get the medication. I had absolutely enough of waiting and decided to forgo the medication, it’s just pain killers anyway. So we approached the pharmacist and requested to retrieve our prescription. The ultra rude pharmacist was like, “We have packed your medication, we cannot retrieve your prescription now.” Duh~ Since you had packed it, couldn’t you pass it to me then? Apparently not. So, I got really annoyed and was about to flare up when my mom interfered. I don’t quite recall what happened after that except that my prescription appeared from thin air and I got it back. Piece of shit~

Since I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of the place, we headed to the carpark. As my mom was driving out, she suddenly reminded me if I had taken an excuse sheet. SHIT. I did mention but they did not pass it to me and I had forgotten about it too! (Well, it’s 50% fault on each side on this, since I should have reminded them.)

So my mom dropped me off at the pickup point and continued to circle the area while waiting for me. I went back to the clinic and requested for my excuse sheet. It took them almost 15 minutes to get me a sheet of paper. When it came, the nurse handed me an MC. (That does it.) I glared at her and mentioned that I did not want an MC, I wanted an excuse sheet! She looked at me and answered that “There’s no excuse sheet, only MC.” I told her fiercely that I wanted an EXCUSE sheet, not MC. She stepped back towards her colleagues and started whispering some shit and the only words I heard her asking them was “what is her queue number.” The 3 of them started fiddling with forms in front of them as if they were trying to find my queue number. (Am I invisitble???) I got really pissed and snapped. “You want my queue number right? It’s 1550!”. That particular nurse acknowledged and quickly slipped away.

My blood was seriously boiling. My mom was calling my mobile anxiously as she had been chased several times by the security guard at the drop off point. After another wait, the nurse came back with the excuse sheet. She tucked it her colleague who was walking by and signaled for her to pass it to me. (Once again, am I invisitble???) Geesh… she could have passed it to me herself! How rude.

The whole ordeal took more than half hour and I would have gotten my medication should I have known how long I had to wait for my excuse sheet. I guess my first visit was a total deception. I was actually fooled into believing that hospitals are more efficient now. Lousy service and looooooooong wait for this time. To think I actually paid private rate and that costs me a BOMB!

Irritated! I'm done with NUH. After the physiotherapy, I'm not going back there again!