The Emergency Ward in China
This post was first written back when Sensei Michael was working in China.
I am very familiar with the Emergency Ward back in Singapore, having escorted countless numbers of pupils there. I have become very accustomed to washing blood off myself.
My superior recently described his experience at the Emergency Ward of a local hospital (he was there to accompany someone). It really reinforced my view of China – that lives here are cheap. So cheap that an abortion is only RMB100 (about USD15, and they do not call it abortion – it’s an “artificial miscarriage”).
At the 6th People’s Hospital, when the ambulance first brings in the patient, he is simply left untreated (even if he’s bleeding) until someone pays the admission fee. Only then will a doctor or nurse attend to him. Until then, the puddles of blood on the floor remains uncleaned.
The next thing that happens would shock anybody coming from a more civilised part of the world. Right out in the ward, without curtains to form individual examination wards (Singapore has them) the unconscious patient (male or female) would be stripped and examined. The ridiculously curious Chinese who were there with their relatives would begin to surround and gawk! I would be very, very angry if the same thing happened to my wife!
Not only that, but the ridiculous going-all-over-the-place-to-pay treatment exists in the Emergency Ward as well! Take a CAT scan? Go to another counter and pay first, before going for the scan. Need a blood test? Go to another counter and pay first, then have your test. Someone might die any moment and there you are giving the roundabout treatment? How cheap can lives get – that it has to be measured in cash and time? Lives are supposed to be priceless!
Life is seriously cheap in China.
I am very familiar with the Emergency Ward back in Singapore, having escorted countless numbers of pupils there. I have become very accustomed to washing blood off myself.
My superior recently described his experience at the Emergency Ward of a local hospital (he was there to accompany someone). It really reinforced my view of China – that lives here are cheap. So cheap that an abortion is only RMB100 (about USD15, and they do not call it abortion – it’s an “artificial miscarriage”).
At the 6th People’s Hospital, when the ambulance first brings in the patient, he is simply left untreated (even if he’s bleeding) until someone pays the admission fee. Only then will a doctor or nurse attend to him. Until then, the puddles of blood on the floor remains uncleaned.
The next thing that happens would shock anybody coming from a more civilised part of the world. Right out in the ward, without curtains to form individual examination wards (Singapore has them) the unconscious patient (male or female) would be stripped and examined. The ridiculously curious Chinese who were there with their relatives would begin to surround and gawk! I would be very, very angry if the same thing happened to my wife!
Not only that, but the ridiculous going-all-over-the-place-to-pay treatment exists in the Emergency Ward as well! Take a CAT scan? Go to another counter and pay first, before going for the scan. Need a blood test? Go to another counter and pay first, then have your test. Someone might die any moment and there you are giving the roundabout treatment? How cheap can lives get – that it has to be measured in cash and time? Lives are supposed to be priceless!
Life is seriously cheap in China.
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