Should we complain&;#063;

SHOULD WE REALLY COMPLAIN?
By Ian Rome

At a hospital somewhere in Eastern Europe an old lady sat alone in the
reception area. The pain in her stomach had become unbearable and today
was the day that she had been promised the operation that would relieve
her of this awful feeling. She had arrived early in the morning as
instructed but now it was late afternoon and still no one had
approached her. She had no money to bribe her way into theatre so she
would just wait, alone and in pain.

A pretty young nurse just happened to notice that the old lady was
still sitting alone on the bench in the corridor. She was concerned.
This was not right. "Grandma, what are you waiting for," she
asked.

With tears streaming down her wrinkled pale features she said, "The
doctor told me to be here this morning for my operation. I am in so
much pain nurse, can you help me?

"Have you offered the doctor any money for the surgery?" asked the
nurse. "No, I have no money, I am from the village, and we are poor.
What can I do nurse?"

The nurse could not bear to see this, she thought of her own
grandmother and how she would feel at this moment. She went straight to
the surgeon and with a high risk of losing her own job, she told him
that the poor old lady waiting for a simple pain relieving operation
was in fact her aunt and could something be done - Within minutes a
relieved but tired old lady was taken to a ward and prepared for an
operation.

The above story is an account of an actual event that is probably
played out many times a year in hospitals all over the eastern block.
These people are human beings the same as us but I read time again how
awful the British National Health Service is. There are constant
complaints about lack of beds, expensive prescriptions, poor
facilities, and many more perceived problems. The list seems to be
endless. Do we, at any time, sit back and consider how really fortunate
this country is when it comes to professional health care?

I have just spent eighteen months in Kosovo working as a civilian
police officer with the United Nations, and I have had an amazing
incite as to

what poor conditions really are, and my own conclusion is that, when
we
add up all the pros and cons, we in the United Kingdom really have very
little to complain about.

During my time in this small ex Yugoslavian state I spent many hours
sitting in a Doctors surgery in a local health care facility in the
small southern town of Prizren, and to be honest with you, I have never
seen such a disorganised set up in all my life, and at the time it made
me glad that I had the NHS to look after my medical needs.

Let us start with the basic family health care facility, which in
Kosovo is called the local, "Health House." This of course is the
equivalent to our general practice surgeries. The GP's in Kosovo do an
eight hour shift, either morning or afternoon. The morning shift starts
work at 7am and works through till 3pm. The surgery is a bare room with
no heating, electrical wires protruding from the wall sockets, and more
often or not the only water in the room is from plastic bottles filled
by the doctors themselves. The patients start arriving immediately and
each doctor will

see at least fifty clients per shift. Here there is no piped music,
warm
carpet or comfortable chairs for the patients to sit on, they line up
in a corridor like cattle waiting to see a vet. The doctors, who earn
the equivalent of ?120 a month, are lucky to get a break during the
shift, and if they have the cheek to leave for a cup of coffee, they
are likely to get verbal, and in some cases, physical abuse from
waiting patients who seem to think that every minor case is a dire
emergency. It is easy to see that, whilst the Doctors there do an
amazing job, they get disheartened and depressed with their lot.

Now, let us move on to the local hospital. During the Kosovo war, the
hospitals were not particularly damaged as they were in bad enough
shape as it was. Rooms normally house four patients, but they are only
the size of a small bedroom. The degree of injury is of little
consequence, everyone mixes together, unless of course they require
intensive care. There is the nauseating smell of urine in most parts of
the hospital and members of the public smoke on the wards, regardless
of the many signs forbidding it. On admittance you are put in an
examination room were

the beds are dirty and stained. What must be emphasised here though is
that the hospitals now are many times better than before the war as
many non governmental organisations have pumped money into the health
care facilities.

On the positive side, there are no waiting lists and normally, once the
patient has been referred to the specialist, treatment will be carried
out almost immediately. Of course, being in the Balkans, if you happen
to have a few Euros spare for the surgeon, it will be done even
quicker. The Doctors are extremely competent, and having met many of
them and seen them in action, I would certainly put my life in their
hands. Slowly, the facilities are being updated, most hospitals have up
to date ECG and other scanning equipment, decoration has been carried
out and windows renewed, so all in all things are staring to look
rosier, apart from the health care professionals pay.

Finally, I can already hear people saying, "Well so what? That is their
problem. All I am concerned about is here." All I can suggest is
that

MF

before you belittle our own facilities, have a quiet think about other
so
called, "developing countries," and maybe things won't look quite so
bad after all.

END