Skip to main content

H1N1 Battle Part 3

Today, not so much about the H1N1 battle but some ranting about hospital etiquette.

My sister reminded me that our dad used to have a separate pair of shoes for hospital check-ups or stays. Now, that is making a lot of sense to us.

People have very short memories. Wasn't it not so many years ago that they didn't want buses to pick up TTSH staff because of fear of infection? Nowadays, I think people no longer fear getting or spreading infections. Just look at the number of people hanging/walking around the hospital and their behaviour.

Many hospitals have common thoroughfares for all and sundry. Like, if you are just going for your eye check-up, you could be walking at the passageway alongside someone who has being going in and out of the ICU (as a visitor). Worse, you could be getting coughed at by that ICU visitor, or you are coughing at him/her. Yet, hardly anyone is using a mask and people in and outside the hospital are coughing and sneezing at, well, all and sundry. (But let's hope that the ICU visitor at least used the mask while in the ICU and washed his/her hands.)

Then, many people in the hospital are there with at least 2 other people. Some are there with, like, a very, very big family group. I cannot say anything about people's preferences but I sure hope that they are all aware that everyone who walks into (or even near) the hospital is open to being infected by something and everyone who walks into (or even near) the hospital is capable of bringing infection in.

Next, there are often groups (meaning 2 or more people together) who are sauntering along passageways like they own them and very, very big family groups walking abreast along corridors at a very, very slow pace. And I'm not talking about elderly, injured or disabled people. Worse, there are some who stop right in the middle of human traffic to engage in extended conversation. People, we need to, like, move faster, so we have less contact with each other and get to where we need to go fast.

Last (for now), I think this happened every day I've been there this past week. Queue-cutting at the taxi stand! Tsk, tsk, how can this happen in Singapore, especially when the taxi stand is quite clearly demarcated. Claps all round for those taxi drivers who made would-be queue-cutters join the queue.

Oh yes, perhaps a word needs to be said about the hospital itself. Do they really need to remind people every 2 days about how high their bill is? Can they just let people focus on getting better?

On the H1N1 front, actually, maybe I should re-name this title because H1N1 is not our biggest problem. Biggest problems are bacteria + asthma. Very likely, H1N1 was downed fairly early and now, the kid is still trying to down the bacteria that went into his system.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan...

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...

When the best man doesn't win

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp...