I really cannot imagine a private hospital can ask a patient who has a history of gallstones with severe gall-bladder pain to wait for three days before getting a diagnosis from a doctor...
After the patient has received the ultrasound on Friday, the doctor did not say even a word except asking the patient to leave. The nurse just asked the patient to come back on Monday for the diagnosis...
No treatment and no explanation was ever given to the patient...
The patient was in severe pain, so she asked the nurse, "can the appointment be brought forward? I am really in great pain. I am worrying..."
"No." The nurse replied, without looking at this patient.
The pain had become more and more severe and a fever had been developed on the following day that made the patient went to this private hospital again...
However, the "instruction" was still the same - the patient can only receive a diagnosis on the following Monday.
From the website of this private hospital, its Gastroenterology and Hepatology Centre is opened from Mondays to Fridays as well as on Saturday mornings. As the patient went to the OPD of this private hospital in Saturday afternoon, clearly the office hours of this specialist centre has been passed, and there was "sufficient" explanation and reason for this patient to be cared on Monday.
According to the regulations and guidelines, the staff of this hospital did nothing wrong. But as a healthcare staff, should they be more sensitive to the needs and disease situation of a patient rather than just following the rules and guidelines of the organization? Should they be more sensitive to the emotional needs of a patient? Could they imagine how a patient, and his or her family members, feel when they asked the patient with untolerable pain to wait for three days for a diagnosis? Can they understand asking a patient to worry for three days is an emotional torture to a patient and his and her family members? The doctor who did the ultrasound should know the disease situation from this imaging examination immediately. Should the doctor explain to the patient a bit (even if it was just a sentence) what has been discovered even though the patient did not ask?
There can be a lot of possibilities, and cholecystitis is one of the possibilities that requires timely treatment, especially for a patient whose disease situation has been deteriorated with the development of a fever.
If it is a HA hospital, I can understand it and will not make any complaints for it as the resource is scarce for serving such a large amount of patients. But it is a private hospital, a private hospital that is said to be committed to provide a holistic health care in the name of Jesus Christ. However, I really cannot see what kinds of holistic care has been provided to this patient. What I can see is just their apathy, not empathy, towards this patient.
Healthcare staff is different from the staff in other service sectors. I always expect that a healthcare staff (or anyone who is working in a healthcare-related sector) should have a higher sense of commitment of serving those who are in need. If you just want to earn a stable income without this sense of commitment and empathy, I don't think you can be a "good" and "passionate" healthcare professional. You can just only be a skillful worker in healthcare at most.
When I was observing in the waiting area of the OPD in this private hospital, I could realize the nurses were not acting like "professionals" at all. I just had the impression that I was waiting in a playground of a primary school, and the nurses there were just behaving like students - playing, laughing, and teasing with one another loudly.
Because of my current job, I had been to several HA hospitals for obervation and interviews with doctors, nurses and patients in the past few weeks for a HA project of my School, and I could not see such things happened among the HA nurses.
I understand the workload of nurses is very heavy and the nurses also need some time to relax. I also do not have any intention to compare the attitudes of nurses between HA and those in private hospitals. I just think that if you want others to respect you as a professional, you have to behave like a professional first.
Also, as professionals, please be considerate and empathetic when playing, laughing, and teasing with one another in front of patients (and their family members). You have the right to relax for sure, but please think about the feelings of the patients and their family members, and please consider whether it is an appropriate place and time for you to play around and laugh loudly. You are not only hurting the feelings of patients and their family members, but you are damaging your professional image at the same time. Will you play and laugh in a funeral?
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This made me to remember a recent interview with a renal disease patient on this HA project. She cried during the interview when remembering about the unpleasant experiences with some nurses during her treatment path on her renal failure.
I just pat on her shoulder, giving her a tissue...and letting her to express her emotion...
When I was listening to her story, my tears filled with my eyes as well. I totally understand how frustrating, how helpless, and how angry she was. Otherwise, I don't think a patient would have burst into tears in front of a stranger like me. As a patient, the most they want to get is the respect, empathy, and support from healthcare staff rather than the technical skills from them. Passion is the most important thing that differentiate us human from a robot. If you do not know how to respect a patient's needs and feelings, then you can just only be a skillful worker in healthcare, but never a good healthcare professional.
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When I was looking at the motto of this private hospital located in Kowloon, I just wondered, is this really a hospital that is committed to follow the Christian belief on providing a holistic care to patients?
RCH Surgical Building
Art in the RCH
"Hope and Healin...
