Medical shouldn't be commercial

...and I take back my word about that SAF's medical department sucks. But they still don't care about the well-being of their soldiers.

I was referred to this "hearing specialist" by my family clinic to get a hearing test. When I reached the place, a commercial area of various private healthcare and beauty clinics, I knew something was wrong.

The guy does show more concern about the situation than the SAF MO's, but the hearing test was carried in a less professional manner - results written on paper before input into the computer, the number of tests is less, and the scale of the graph will result in the curve always being a straight line. Of course, he probably wouldn't know what's called selective frequency loss, and he called a 5db difference in hearing between left and right "normal". Normal? Fk it, that's at least 3 times as loud on a logarithmic scale. He obviously doesn't know his stuff.

And sure I know why. When I went outside, I saw his certificate. "University of Queensland - Advanced Diploma". Fuck, I'm consulting a polytechnic-equivalent in Singapore context. And the University of Queensland to boot - the last time I visited them after Exercise Wallaby I wondered if it could provide any decent level of education. Well, their Rockhampton town campus, but that campus has a medical school so it's still relavant. At any rate, I already know more than him on my condition.

And the best part?

I'm paying him $50 for the test.

The family clinic only charges $20 for consultation and the doctor holds a degree from NUS, which is like the best in the region for medical education.

So just by a nice shopfront in a golden district and of course, the "specialist" title, you expect people to pay you much more?

Which is why, I feel that medical shouldn't be commercialized. When it comes to making money, people ignore the actual work and performance and focus on things in a business-like manner. Hello~, we're dealing with lives here.

Now I totally understand why the doctors working in the public sector are always grumpy. Yes, life sucks isn't it? Y'all are one of the best out there yet you are looking at so many small cases for only $3000 per month. Stupid bond period. But that's where you get the money for your expensive studies and that's how the government gets good doctors to look at poor patients. The government did a good job here, although the attitude and hence treatment of patients still needs improvement.

And one thing for sure - the staff of the "specialist" clinic were all very happy to see their patients. At $50 per visit, who wouldn't?

Oh the power of money.