Tired. My mind craved for something different to read, other than my own notes. Somehow my eyes flickered to the stack of journals and papers at the corner of my room - went through the whole bundle and picked up a sealed envelope. Dated as 'september 2007'. Interesting... I must have forgotten to open and read it up.
Anyway, it was an MPS Casebook.

MPS - acronym for Medical Protection Society. A society that every medical student and health professionals (especially doctors) are urged to join - in the name of protection. To protect patients from unjust medical judgement and to protect doctors, also from unjust proceedings.
The casebook itself (send to members) served to scare the hell out of doctors, pressuring them to make accurate diagnosis each time (no matter how the situation is, so what if the said robotic worker was at the end of his 72 hours shift: that somehow couldnt justify for one to make way out of the line diagnosis on a patient.) Heh. After all, in the happyworld, people would return to their own homesweethome, rosy cheek and all. Heh.

I sound bitter, didnt I? *cough*
Hah. I dont know where I am going with this. But anyway...

One of the cases in the said book was titled as "A System Failure". Sound intriguing enough. Anyway, to summarise:
"A woman attended her local surgery for a regular smear test. After a couple of months, she got married and moved away (notifying the surgery of her new details). Months after that, experiencing pain and all, she resurfaced. Turned out the poor woman got herself a cervical cancer - something that should have been picked up during her cervical smear test. Outraged - she called up her lawyer and the case was settled for a huge sum."
The one mistake identified was that the result of her smear test couldnt reach her personally. And somehow, that had the Health System's name to blame.

Bewildered I was. I wondered just how far does a doctor (or the health system) really have to go to make sure that someone, in his care, to obtain information regarding their health. I wonder just how much responsibility is placed on health professionals' shoulders, for them to carry, everyday. I wonder how someone could possibly make sure that everyone is fully informed of their own health situation. I wonder whether the Health System really have to track patients up, chase them to wherever they are going. I wonder whether the Health System actually has that capacity, that human power and resources, to actually do that.

And lastly, I wonder about the responsibility someone has for his or her own health. Is it not one's own responsibility to make sure that one does follow up? Is it not one's own responsibility that one does gain whatever information one intends to have? Is it not one's responsibility to call up one's own health provider, demanding one's result if one is really worried about it?

Is moving away (from home) really equates moving away from one's own responsibility to track one's result down? Unfortunately, that what it seemed to be like in this particular case. Hence, it became the health system's fault.
The one loophole pointed was that the health system did not sufficiently track the patient down enabling her to get her result. That the health system did not update about her change of address.

...

Interesting. Really interesting to see how overpowering people are.

Anyway, I wonder about the situation back in Brunei. Do things like these also occur in my beloved homecountry? I dont know. I really dont. But then again ...

I guess there are people in the country (Brunei) who are dissatisfied with the current national's health system (heck. people are dissatisfied with anything - when you think about it. But I digress.)
But cases being brought to court by patients (or their relatives) are unheard of - almost inexistant I think (but then again, I do not spent hours everyday mulling over proceedings going on at the court, so I cant tell for sure). But I am almost positively sure that no one really take the hospital (or doctors) to court. And if there actually are parties suing the local health providers - then, that must be out of my knowledge as local papers that I read never printed such news.

In a way, that sounds good. You know, with people being so nice to the health authorities and all.
"What for sue-ing my doctor? He is my uncle's neighbour distant cousin lah. And he is nice too, he attended my last daughter's wedding.. my nasiblah.. complications in the surgery and all.."

[ You know, in here (NZ) - it almost seem like patients are fighting, at least for their own health. Fighting against the system or whoever, that they thought compromised their health beings. There were almost no room for mistakes. ]

And in a way, knowing that people wont sue others back in Brunei provide a temporary relief. HAH!. But then again, is it really a relief? Think about it:
Sometimes we do really need a much stringent protocol. A much stricter policy, to discipline ourselves. Knowing that there wont be any punishments, m afraid, leave possibilities for mistakes. For making little mistakes - that could be disastrous. And sometimes, we do need others (most importantly: patients) to fight back, to point out, possible mistakes placed by the system or done by the doctor(s) - so that new ways could be implemented in the system for the benefits of locals' health.
Authorities should NOT be afraid of complaints, should NOT be afraid to hear the locals' voices.

Having said that, it is NOT the intention of this post to aggravate anyone to start lodging complains and sue-ing doctors, or dentists, or nurses back at home. Like I said before, I dont really know where I am going with this post actually.

But one thing to bear in mind though: IF you have any reason to believe that something look amiss in the consultation room, you (as a patient) do have the right to seek information from the doctor and voice out your opinion of what you think might be going wrong. And do state it if you are not happy with your current medications (if you cant tolerate the side effects) - that is much much better than passively agreeing with your doctor and taking the prescriptions at the counter, but never ingest them back at home. -_____-"
You know your body best, better than anyone else. You know what you can tolerate and what you cant. And sometimes, people make mistakes - its only humane. And statistics has it: the older the patient is, the higher the chances of doctor getting the diagnosis wrong.

That will be the end of my rant for now - more stuffs to cover >.<
And this is just my OPINION anyway, angst and all.
And what do I know anyway? After all, I am just a 3rd year student..