Singapore's hospitals can sometimes be really screwed up.
My hospitalised friend Cedric calls me to ask how things are in the army. He's been warded for dengue fever. Initially we were scared that he'd contracted it in camp, as there have been a few dengue cases in the unit in the past few months, till the higher authorities were nearly considering declaring an outbreak - which means we'll get quarantined in camp as consideration to the civilian public.
From what I hear, Robbie, our platoon medic, sent him to the Changi Geneal Hospital on Sunday. But the orderly sergeant during the weekend says that he was sent to Singapore General Hospital (SGH). I ask Cedric about it. "Yes - but now I've been transferred to the CDC."
CDC? The Communicable Diseases Centre? What the heck would dengue patients be found there? As we all know, the CDC made its name during the SARS crisis in 2003.
Apparently Cedric had been admitted to SGH. The hospital, it seems, was quite filled, so they put him in a ward full of cancer patients. Literally the entire ward was dedicated to the care of cancer patients. It freaked him out. There he was, the only dengue patient, with all those old people wheezing and coughing and who knows when they're going to die. His parents, equally paranoid that their son might catch some cancer shit, moved him to Tan Tock Seng.
And then the people at Tan's Hospital threw him into the CDC, where he currently "resides" all alone in one room, with nothing but a phone. He's literally bored to death. He stares at the wall all day long. It's almost comparable to the mental hospital.
Come to think of it, the whole thing's pretty fucked up. How can patients be put into wards that don' cater to their illnesses? That's very dangerous. If there is really a lack of space, then for God's sake build more hospitals. The people living in the north can benefit from a general hospital, like Changi in the east. I doubt the West needs any more: there are already Alexander and the National University Hospitals. However, the North lacks one. The nearest is probably Tan Tock Seng. Even so, it’s still a great distance for people living in Woodlands and Sembawang and Yishun.
So who's going to be responsible if someone catches a new disease when he's there to be treated after he is thrown into any Tom, Dick and Harry ward?
