Snob and Indonesian Health Care
One time, an Indonesian conglomerate went to a hospital one of his foundations owns in West Jakarta for a bout of stomach ache. The doctor treating him listened to his predicaments, and concluded that the rich guy had stress problems.
The guy refused the diagnosis, flew to Singapore for a consultation with the esteemed Singaporean doctors.
They prodded him, drew some blood, put him under scan after scan. About Sing$10,000 later, the good doctors came with their conclusion: Stress.
The rich guy still thought that Singaporean doctors are better, because "they checked everything". The thing is, if he was in NL, I bet my arm on this, that Dutch doctor treated him just as his Indonesian counterpart. They listen to you, making an anamnesis, then based on their diagnosis, they decide if you need more tests or not. Sure, you can go directly to a specialist without any referral, but you have to pay out of pocket, and it costs at least 10 times as much as Indonesian specialist. Since in NL you are covered by an insurance, doctors are more reluctant prescribing you any unnecessary tests or drugs to cut the cost bore by the insurance.
In Indonesia you seem to only hear good stories about foreign doctors and bad stories about Indonesian doctors. The fact is, bad doctors are everywhere, just as good doctors are everywhere. I met several parents who had their share consulting with foreign doctors in Indonesia about their kids. Some told me their negative experiences in private, and when I asked why dont they warn other parents about those foreign doctors, my friends just blamed it to their own bad luck or said perhaps other people experience it differently.
It really makes me wonder, why Indonesian are so easy divulging their bad experiences with Indonesian doctors but not when it comes to foreign doctors. Is it because of inferiority complex? Is it because of Indonesian doctors have worse bedside manner? Is it because they already paid way much more to the foreign doctors, so if they had bad experience it's down to Indonesian patient's fault, not the foreign doctor's (after all, they say there's price for the quality)?
6 comments:
Hear, hear.
An example from own experience - which isn't proof of anything of course.
One of my daughters in law's mother had a heart operation one and a half year ago. It was carefully prepared and skilfully executed. Efficient and successful andrelatively inexpensive.
(Health insurance is a problem however).
Health Insurance is not a must, so the quality is still far from NL. Yesterday my brother told me about his friend who were black and blue from an accident, his insurance only covers him if he has a broken bone during an accident!! Over here insurances sometimes only cover certain ailments (they advertise it as covering 30 ailments, etc). Some hospitals also give out different price to insurance than what the patients are already paid, so reimbursement can be a pain in behind because the numbers doesnt add up.
Minderwardig het complex? Uhuyyyy. Kita sering berurusan dengan mantera. Antara lain akat-alat kedokteran mutakhir, seperti koleksi keris kuno dokter, dan bayar mahal untuk itu semua -- padahal komunikasinya sedikit, visite cuma semenit.
minderwaardigheidscomplex :D Most Indonesians still think than bule/foreigners are better than us, so Indonesians are afraid to criticised them.
Our doctors are also forget that communication is the key, they need to teach meds students better bedside manner. The best advice I got from my former boss: listen to patient's problems.
inferiority complex is one phrase.
you know, another related phrase popped into my head while thinking about this the other day. a national lack of self respect.
This nation lacks a lot of things. It's becoming more and more like a nation full of thieves. from top to bottom of the society someone steals something all the time: stealing other people's right, money, life, time, and the list goes on and on.
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