TTSH and the Singapore Efficiency Syndrome (SES)

I had a very unpleasant visit to TTSH this morning.

For those not in the know, I made my way to A&E at TTSH last saturday to remove a foreign body in my left eye. I had minor irritation and the appearance of a wrinkle on the cornea of my eye let me to believe that somehow, my LASIK flaps have come undone.

Upon arriving at TTSH at around 5:30 pm, I saw the doctor only at 6:30, after going through the battery of tests to ensure I was not suffering from stroke/heart attack etc etc. Who goes to A&E for eye irritation? LASIK patients that's who.

And so, after removal of the "foreign body" FB in short, the ED doctor (ED=emergency department) made an appointment for me to see my eye surgeon, Dr Lee Hung Ming on Monday at 10.40 am.

And following last night's extreme dota session (woohoo shadow shaman!), I woke up at 10 am dead tired. Reached TTSH at 10.30 and proceeded to the "subsidised patients" section where they classed me under a subsidised patient.

Right. A cosmetic surgical patient whose surgery costs $4.5k to see a normal eye doctor. I rather see Clarence. When he's drunk.

And so, after eye diagnostics, where the nurse asked me if I wore specs, to which I was flabbergasted.

FACT 1: SHE DIDN'T KNOW THE PATIENT'S MEDICAL HISTORY, WHICH IS ON RECORD AND IN THE FILES!

And so, I waited outside some Dr. Chin Chee Soon's office (no offence doctor), along with all the grandmothers and old folks who paid with their medisaves.

And Lo and Behold, I saw 2 M3s (medical year 3s) inside the office, taking peeks at a patient's eye through the eye magnifying equipment.

This is when I thought: I PAID $4.5k FOR LASIK, and NOW my LASIK-ed eye is going to be checked by 2 M3s.

Fuck off TTSH. I'm not giving you $4.5k to get my eye checked by medical year 3s. I can just imagine them going: LOOK AT THE RESHAPED CORNEA *oooooo. aahhhhhh* *fascination*

Fuck off. And so in true Singaporean fashion, I demanded my eye surgeon, because at the point, it seemed clear that the hospital staff had no FUCKING idea what they were doing.

And lo and behold, Dr. Lee Hung Ming would only be in at 2pm.

Bravo. Bravo ED doctor on Saturday, Dr. Kevin Sia, for booking me for an appointment with a senior consultant WHO IS NOT GOING TO BE IN HIS OFFICE!

And so, I had to see some other LASIK trained doctor, who took one look, lasted 5 mins, said it's okay, and charged me $35. All these after several calls to the LASIK centre to ask to speak to Dr. Lee and blah blah blah blah blah.

What efficiency?

On a side note, female doctors are smart and pretty.


lip
ranting