ON Sunday March 16, 2014 at about 10.00 a.m I decided to go for my monthly dressing and medical checkup at the Suddie Public Hospital. On arrival I was courteously greeted by two porters, who know me well before my accident.

I booked my name and proceeded to the dressing room and the two porters helped me to get on the dressing bed which I estimated to be about 6 feet in length and 18 inches in width. Which would be very difficult for someone to balance and lie on, especially a disabled or aged person. There was one trainee male nurse in the room and a trained female nurse who thought that she was doing me a favour and was very unprofessional.
After I left the dressing room, I decided to take a checkup on my blood pressure and I met another female nurse sitting at her desk texting on her cell phone. I told her that I wanted to check my pressure and she told me to wait for five minutes, however, about 20 minutes after she was still texting as the line of patients got longer. I told her that five minutes was long gone, but she continued her texting so I called the same trainee male nurse from the dressing room to give me a checkup which he did.
Editor, the government and the Ministry of Health regularly conducts education programmes for creating awareness about efficiency towards patients and the department is fully equipped, but some nurses at this hospital are lackadaisical. This kind of burden on a sick patient his/her family and the community at large is an enormous one. Whether the handicap, be it a physical or mental one, it always ends up being an emotional and a financial drain.
Do some of these nurses and doctors realise that this hospital should consistently provide safe, excellent. high and quality care and the best possible medical treatment for patients? With all the billions of dollars spent on this hospital it should offer a significant service in terms of quality of treatment, competence of nurses and doctors, level of care and effectiveness as I have seen in India.

MOHAMED KHAN