Oh, a life of privilege

Jamaica has free health care!! That should be good, right?

Man, I just got back from the hospital. A routine checkup for a nearly blind 88 year old friend (yes, I have a bunch of them) who lives in the village I work in had an appointment...so that should mean in and out, right? Back at home, I can fit a doctor visit in during a lunch break. Oh, the convenience.

The majority of the world does not live like we do...I am learning that more and more.

Privilege.

Since the last election, the fees for visits to the hospital and most medications were waived as long as you attend a public hospital or clinic. But the hospitals and clinics are understaffed, under supplied, overcrowded and even more so now than ever before now that health care is free.

This morning we left at 5:30 AM to reach the hospital before they started giving out numbers...you know, like they do at the deli counter. It was 6 AM and we got number 30...thirty whole patients in front of us even though we got there at 6 AM!!! We sat and waited, him in his wheelchair because he is blind and cannot walk anymore, and me under this outdoor tent that I am pretty sure traps heat more than anything..waiting and waiting and waiting.

The benches inside were jam packed. There were children of all ages in their school uniforms, a mother nursing her child, an elderly woman who was blind, a woman coughing a horrible cough. People everywhere. The outdoor tent held those who were more than ten patients away and who weren't in wheel chairs. There were a few occasions that patients started arguing with the security attendant, convinced the roster was being altered and other people were being favored and pushed up on the list. I mean, its possible and probably occurred.

I kept thinking about those who were waiting. The children are missing a full day of school. The parents are missing a full day of work. And these are routine visits, for like a cold or a strange pain. They are at a public hospital because they are already struggling financially...I wonder what another day out of work must mean.

Finally, at around 2 PM, my 88 year old friend had been seen by a doctor, obtained a prescription for his ailments and a reminder slip that his next "appointment" was on September 22, of course anytime, which means earlier than 6AM if you want to be seen sooner. He was exhausted! We still had to pick up the prescriptions, which meant a trip to another building on the campus to wait for another half hour for the medications, only one of which they had on hand. For the rest, we went to a nearby pharmacy to purchase the ones he could afford, which was only one out of the three.

All in all, it was a good day...he did see the doctor after all, which isn't always the case. But every time I bring people from the village to the hospital, the most surprising thing to me is that they do not complain about the wait. It is a way of life here...inserted into the routine of living...but oh so different from what I am used to. Sometimes I think about how that corporate executive or big time lawyer would react if given these circumstances without any way around it...if they couldn't buy themselves convenience. Or even the average American, myself included. Doomed to just wait and wait and wait. The people who are waiting should be the ones who are working to earn some desperately needed money. Who declared that money rules the world? Because money talks, right? Something just doesn't seem right...

Oh, a life of privilege.