By Alie Sonta Kamara
Hospitals are meant to take great care of the sick, with health workers expected to uphold high levels of ethical standards.
In a well organised hospital, the sick should not be made to cramp in one tight spot. And at best, every sick person should be treated fairly. However, this is not the case at the famous Connaught Hospital where the outpatient unit receives hundreds of sick people with diverse health issues.
This writer witnessed one of the very ugly scenes when he went for a medical checkup at that health facility. After tipping an irregular registration form-giver, I was directed into an upper room overlooking the street next to King Jimmy where I was made to pay some amount of money for a yellow card along with a registration form.
Then I was told to enter another room downstairs adjacent to the main gate for examination purposes. There, I parted with some cash after some kind of blood pressure test before being shown into a compartment looking very much like a hallway to wait for my turn to see the doctor. In that hallway, the sick cramped in close proximity such that the shoulder of one person is made to touch the next person. Imagine the situation and what can happen during that time.
To secure a spot close to the doctor’s office, you must bribe your way through some health workers in civil garments. And if you want your health history to reach the doctors in time, you have to bribe again.
Having gone through all these illegal routes, you are forced to see another movie; these health workers in civil raiment will collect few other papers through odd means, pass them over your heads and take them directly to the doctors whilst the rest of mankind sit there in slow-moving queues gazing in pitiful stupidity.
What is more painful is how some nurses lack the basic etiquette. They can hurl abuses upon your already sick condition when you become impatient.
When you look at your watch and consider the hours you have spent in mere futility, you have a good reason to share the perception of those who will otherwise choose Arab clinics over main referrals such as Connaught Hospital. We are our own enemies, not the Government.
