London vs Singapore: NHS Hospitals

Okay as you guys know, I sprained my ankle pretty badly last night. This morning I woke up and it felt even worse - in fact, I woke up several times last night just from the sheer pain of the ankle. Each time I moved a little in the bed, the pain would wake me up. I dealt with a few things for work and by 11 am, when I tried to walk to the toilet and it was just agony and I realized - I need to get a doctor to look at this ankle, it just hurts way too much. If it is just a torn ligament, then fine that will heal, I just wanted to make sure the bones weren't fractured. Yes, it is fractured - but not seriously, my foot is not in a cast, phew. It hurts less now but I am on painkillers.

I'm going to talk about the NHS in the UK here and it is fucking sad that I have to put this disclaimer here, but you Singaporeans are fucking asking for it. For you Singaporean fuckwits (not all of you, calm down, just the fucking idiots), I know the NHS is funded by the tax payer you fucking idiots. Stop fucking telling me that the NHS is funded by the tax payer - I am a UK tax payer for crying out aloud for you fucking Singkie idiots. Is that clear? The NHS is funded by the UK tax payer - by people like Limpeh, yours truly. Moving on...

I had to go get an X-ray at UCH today. 

I talked to my buddy VC in Singapore this evening and we discussed a few things, comparing Singapore and London. He told me, "oooh NHS, you know what we think in Singapore. LKY said they nearly killed his wife when she had an emergency in London back in 2003."I vaguely remembered that story and looked it up on the internet and it seem that there are two versions of the story: the one which is broadly reported in the British press and the savagely racist anti-British hateful versions that Singaporeans have been trading on social media (such as forums). Now what happened to LKY's wife was nine years ago, I don't really want to comment on that case as it's history. I do however, want to share my day with you so you can see what a person like me would have to go through after sustaining an injury in the UK. I'm not here to justify or praise the NHS (yes I know there are problems with the NHS that we can talk about - no system in the world is perfect), but in sharing my story here, I will let you make up your own mind on the British NHS system.

Tuesday 8 pm: At my gymnastics club, I landed a front handspring front layout somersault full twist with my left foot on the edge of the mat and rolled my ankle over. I keeled over and grabbed my left ankle as sharp pain shot through my body. The main was so overwhelming I don't remember much... I seem to remember Kat standing over me saying, "Oh damn, he's hurt, he's hurt real bad. Ice pack, quick somebody go get an ice pack." My friends Liane, David and Tom then carried me over to a mat and Kat gave me an ice pack and she said, "Don't move, don't get up."

Wednesday 9 am: After a restless night (barely able to sleep because of the pain), I got out of bed and started doing work stuff. Trying to walk even from my bedroom to the toilet or the kitchen was agony. I kept telling myself, it'll get better - it didn't. Talk about wishful thinking, eh?

11:15 am: I decided this is ridiculous, I can't even walk to the toilet or the kitchen. I need to get a doctor to have a look at this. I didn't fancy going to the hospital - the thought of going to the A&E and waiting ages horrified me. So I decided to go to the local GP, hoping that the GP would tell me that it's just a sprained ankle, go home and rest. I finished my coffee, emailed my colleague Sylvie and told her to man the fort as I was going to go to the doctor's for the rest of the day and got dressed for a cold December's day.

12 noon: I hobbled into the local NHS clinic at Soho Square, only to realize, shit I have not registered with them since I moved to Soho. The nurse looked my name and date of birth on the NHS system and was able to find my old records on their system anyway - so I could be seen.

12:05 pm: A nurse interviewed me and did a preliminary examination.

"Yes that ankle looks very swollen indeed."

12:08 pm: (approximately) I was about to do a Facebook status update on my mobile when the doctor called me into surgery and I thought, damn that was quick. The doctor examined my ankle, poking it with her finger, "Does it hurt when I press here? What about here? And here?" I said, "No, no, no, no... Not really. No. A bit. AAAAARRGGHHH! Yes it hurts a lot there." The doctor said, "That's bone there. You need an X-ray. The nearest hospital is UCH (University College Hospital). Go to the A&E and they will give you an X-ray and only then can the doctors there confirm if that ankle is fractured and prescribe the right treatment."

12:30 pm: I left the Soho NHS clinic.

12:50 pm: Arrived at Warren Street station and crossed the road to UCH.

12:53 pm: Arrived at UCH A&E. Took a look around the waiting room and my first thought was, "oh damn, crying babies and toddlers". To my surprise, there was no queue. I walked up to the counter and the lady behind the counter asked me, "Have you been a patient at this hospital before?" I said, no I don't think so. She then asked me for my date of birth and surname and she was then able to give me my address from 2000 and I was like, "Yeah, I used to live there but that was ages ago." She said, "You attended the eye clinic in 2000 - we still have you on file, if you would update your details for me on the system, we'll get you seen to. But there is going to be a bit of a wait - this is A&E and there are people who need urgent medical attention..." I nodded - I had expected nothing less. I have brought my Welsh book with me and was prepared to wait.

The doctor will see you now...

1:15 pm: Marek the nurse called me in for an initial examination - he had a long Polish surname which I cannot remember. He spoke English flawlessly with a slight hint of a Slavic accent and if I hadn't noticed his surname, I might have missed the fact that he was Polish. Yes we do have a lot of foreigner working in the NHS and they're brilliant. How would we cope without them? He said, "Okay, we're going to get you an X-ray now, then we will get a doctor to have a look at your ankle with the X-rays."

1:20 pm: Marek led me to the X-ray department and there was a boy with his arm in a cast ahead of me. The boy was obviously in a lot of distress and his father was trying his best to comfort the boy. "What happened to your son?" I asked the father. "He was playing football at school this morning and..." The father didn't get to finish his story - the X-ray technician called the boy's name and they went into the X-ray room.

1:25 pm: The boy with his arm in a sling left the room with his father, who gave me a nod and a smile. The X-ray technician also had a Slavic sounding name and had some kind of Eastern European accent. Czech or Slovak maybe... Polish... Maybe Lithuanian. She was business like - in and out, loads of people with dodgy limbs and possibly broken bones to X-ray. "Please wait outside, we have your X-rays now and a doctor will see you when available."

I had to get my left ankle X-rayed ...

1:30 pm: I settled into a chair in the waiting room and scanned the people in the room. There was an elderly Indian lady with her entire family there, fussing over her. There was a mother with a very restless girl - the child refused to sit still and was crawling everywhere. Her mother looked exhausted, "Polly, come on, Polly! Sit down, please! Mummy is not going to go chasing after you! Polly, put that down, come here! Etc." Her mother looked dreadful and I quite honestly couldn't tell if it was the mother or the daughter who needed to see a doctor.

1:45 pm: There was an old man at the counter who demanded that the receptionist gave him his medical records for his doctor. "I came to this A&E 6 months ago and I need the records for my doctor, what treatment you gave me, the prescription for the medicines, all that." The receptionist said, "Sir, we cannot do that. You have to get your doctor to write to us to request that information and we will send that to him. We are obliged by law to protect the data of all our patients." The old man was not happy and argued with the receptionist, "But these records are about me! They are about my body and what treatment I got here!" The receptionist got one of her colleagues to take the old man aside and speak to him in another room. I was thinking, "come on old man, there are so many people here who are very ill - stop giving the receptionist a hard time, she has a job to do."

2:05 pm: I saw a woman on a stretcher being wheeled past me. She was obviously in agony - there was a nurse with her, trying to get her details. Urgent cases like that would obviously get to jump the queue and get seen immediately.

"Doctor, this man has his legs stuck behind his legs..."

2:20 pm Another patient in a wheel chair is pushed past me and was seen by a doctor at once, I have resigned myself to a very long wait. I was contemplating getting some ghastly looking snacks from the vending machine.

2:30 pm: Finally I got to see a doctor - an old man with fuzzy grey hair, Dr Crombie. He examined my ankle whilst looking at the X-rays - he then said, "I think there's a small fracture here, but I am going to get an orthopaedic specialist to take a look at these X-rays and get his opinion, so if you don't mind waiting over there please."

2:40 pm: The orthopaedic specialist and Dr Crombie have been speaking, pointing at the X-ray. The orthopaedic surgeon poked my ankle but spoke only to Dr Crombie.

2:50 pm: Dr Crombie said, "We think there is a small fracture on your ankle, right here on the X-ray, but we have concluded that it is so small it is practically like a hairline fracture and isn't serious enough to warrant any treatment. The ligaments are torn but those will heal in a few weeks. We will give you a compression bandage to support that ankle of yours and you must rest. You must also take some anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen, which you can get from any pharmacy. If you're not significantly better after a week, then by all means, please come back and see us and we'll X-ray that ankle again. But you should be much better in a week or two."

I needed some anti-inflammatory drugs.

2:55 pm: About two hours after arriving at UCH A&E, I left with my left ankle in a compression bandage.

Here's the bit which stunned my Singaporean buddy VC. Here's the cost breakdown for today.

Consultation at local NHS Clinic: £0.00 FREE
X-ray at UCH for my ankle: £0.00 FREE
Consultation at UCH with doctor and orthopaedic specialist: £0.00 FREE
Compression bandage: £0.00 FREE
2 packets of Ibuprofen from Sainsbury's: £0.70 (£0.35 each)

Total cost: £0.70 (S$1.37)

I spent the grand amount of £0.70 today for my medical treatment. 

Now VC has had various problems with his foot over the years and he is no stranger to the hospitals in Singapore. He couldn't believe that I only had to pay for my prescription and everything else was free. In his words (and I quote), "Alamak in Singapore, get X-ray: pay! See doctor and get X-ray not covered in medisave leh, my medisave pun tak pakai" (Translation: Goodness me, in Singapore, if I have to get an X-ray, I have to pay. If I have to see a doctor and get an X-ray, that's not covered in my Medisave - my Medisave is not valid for it.")

Perhaps some of my Singaporean readers can help me out here as I am perplexed - what is the bloody point of your Medisave if you cannot use it to cover things like seeing a doctor or getting an X-ray? I have to thank my reader Winking Doll who is a nurse and she has shared the following information with me (and I quote, from her comments):

At the hospital, waiting for the X-ray 

"Maybe I was bloody unlucky. I could have died if I followed the advice of an A&E doctor at a Singapore restructured hospital back in March-2009. http://winkingdoll.blogspot.ca/2009/08/pneumonia.html

When I was doing my A&E clinical experience at a Singapore restructured hospital in Dec-2008, I have seen patients arriving just before 8am who were still there waiting at 3pm just to see the doctor. Actually, for those cases, it would have been better if they went to a polyclinic or a private GP, the A&E was too busy to meet their needs -- and it wasn't just a once-off "bad day" situation. Just so you know, upon arrival at A&E all patients are required to pay SGD90 before they get to join the queue."

For me, I don't have to pay for any of my NHS treatment because it is publicly funded by the tax payers. VC was further impressed by the turn around time of 2 hours flat, including X-rays and seeing a specialist. He said, "You know, in Singapore, we have this impression that the NHS is falling apart... I'm just surprised you didn't have to wait months in a queue for this? Amazing. What's the whining Bullshit from Papalee about NHS almost killing his precious wife and with its long waiting times then?"

Why do Singaporeans dislike Brits and can't wait to put Brits down?

Sigh. I have written about this before. Maybe it's a Chinese thing. Allow me to quote myself from a previous post to explain the Chinese concept of "咒" - to curse someone:

"When I was in primary school, I would hear kids say things like, "我咒你 PSLE不及格!" (I curse you to fail your primary school leaving exams!") Of course, this whole thing about putting a curse on someone could be dressed up in far more colourful language, but you get the idea. To 咒 someone is the act of telling the other party that you wish great misfortune to befall them. It is meant to be taken as an insult, rather than a serious prediction. None of us have any Harry Potter type super powers to make our curses potent."

Now I can see how a racist Singaporean would gladly 咒 the NHS in the UK - "I 咒 the NHS and all the patients who have to rely on it!" But a curse like that... doesn't work. Just because you wish for some great misfortune to befall a person or country doesn't mean it would somehow automatically happen - some people go to great lengths to make such curses come true, dabbling in the occult and black magic. But no VC, the fact that some Singaporeans have cursed the NHS and the UK doesn't change anything - I still had a remarkably good experience today. Okay my ankle still hurts a lot, but the kind of service I got (for free) exceeded my expectations by a very long way.

"I put a Chinese curse on you!"

So there you go, I thought I'd just share my experiences from the last 24 hours and let you be the judge. It has been ages since I've visited a hospital in Singapore - mind you, I used to make quite a few visits to the Toa Payoh Hospital A&E as I had loads of gymnastics accidents back then. But rather than compare my experiences in Singapore back then - why don't you tell me about your experiences with Singaporean hospitals? Have you been to a hospital in Singapore recently? What was your experience like? How long did you have to wait and how much did you have to pay? Were you satisfied or disappointed? Leave a comment below, many thanks.