Thursday 7 February 2008

still grumpy.......... Thursday

Well today has been even worse for me, I seem to have a foot infection, not too bad but I decide to pop along to Makati medical centre to ask a GP to look at it.

Now whenever I go in anywhere that is going to cost me money I always get them to give me the cost before I go ahead or the final bill could be anything.

So in I go prepared..... ME I just want to see a GP..... THEM... just go into see this lady and give your details... ok no problem so far... I goes in, this lady is dressed as a nurse and wants to check my vital signs... I say... no it's ok I just want to see a GP.... HER. Sir this is what we have to do... ME... knowing that anything like this although unnecessary is going to cost me money says no I just want a GP.... SHE... but sir ..... OK I say before you do anything what is this going to cost.... (remember I just want to see a GP)SHE... 600 pesos sir.... is that the full cost, there's no extra charge to see the GP... SHE... no, unless you have to have an x ray or something like that.... ME... ok then that’s fine. So she simply takes my blood pressure(which was fine) and my temperature which was ok also and that’s all she done.... then I'm given to a receptionist to take down my details then I'm passed onto a nurse in the primary treatment area. A few mins later I see a female doc, she looks and says that she will give me a cream and some antibiotics that I requested... ok things are going ok. She returns in 5 more mins and says that I just need the cream and can do without the antibiotics... ok if you say so and she is saving me money.
I'm then directed to the cashier to pay, I'm told the docs fee is 400 pesos (£5) that’s fair...then he says but the total is 1000 pesos ( £12.50)... ME WHAT !! what's the other 600 p for.... CASHIER.. for hospital admin... but the first "nurse" said a max of 600.... so I am well peeved... after a few words along the lines of typical Philippine incompetence.... I pay and walk out an angry man, Yes I know it's not much but if you faced this sort of incompetence and everyone trying to get their hands on your money... you would understand better.

I goes home to watch the cricket, it goes very well and England thrash New Zealand but I begin to feel a lot more pain in my foot... my toes look like I have 5 big toes, they and my foot has swollen so much in the past few hours. It is now 9pm and I will have to go to another doc tomorrow just to get some antibiotics. I'm not sure if I will be able to even get my shoe on to go see him.

I must admit it's at times like these that you realise how alone you are in the world, luckily someone I know here has directed me to another surgery in Mandaluyong.

Tomorrow (Friday) I am meeting an American that I know online, he's the one that I visited Nha Trang for, we are meeting for lunch, he is ex USAF and I think he will have an interesting story to tell. He is getting old now, I would guess he is in his late 60's at least, he has a huge memory problem so much so that he has to keep records of people he has met and anything he is going to do because of it being so bad. Each email I send him, he has to re-read the previous one to remember who I am !!
It should be interesting.

I hope you have a great Thursday.... for once mine is going to be a painful one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gerard, or should I say grumpy.

Hope the foot is a bit better, sounds pretty bad, you will have to bathe it often, you must have an infection in it. Take care and keep it clean as you could have a lot more problems than you realise.

I don't like their way of charging, can you get them to put it in writing, have a wee shorthand pad with you at all times, then you would have the evidence.

Hope you have a good day with the American, it will definitely be interesting, as with memory problems the long-term memory is better than the short-term, so he will remember what happened in the war but wont remember who he's talking too and why.......

Glad you enjoyed the cricket. I taped it for Keith today and he is now watching it.

Hope all goes well with the foot....

Take care
LOL

Anne xxxxx the happy one