Mrs. Oanh, from Hanoi, told VietNamNet that she had recently taken her child to the Central Pediatrics Hospital for medical examination and she was worried about the way doctors work.
“The doctor only asked what the matter with my son was and then took notes. He rarely looked at my son. After asking several questions, he told us to make tests and scans without giving any explanation.”
“When I asked him about my son’s situation, the doctor only said: let’s go for the tests and return here. The total time I saw the doctor might be less than one minute!” Oanh said.
After nearly two hours waiting for test results, Oanh took her son back to the consulting room to see the doctor. Checking the test results, the doctor wrote out prescriptions. The mother was so worried and she ‘plucked up courage’ to ask them what was the matter with her child, because at that time the doctor looked very tired and there was a scowl on his face, the doctor said “rectum prolamse.”
The mother did not understand what is “rectum prolamse” so she was very worried and asked one more question. The doctor was very furious and said: “Because your son has suffered from constipation or diarrhea for a long time so he is in this situation.”
Oanh did not dare to ask more. She took the prescription, which she could not read its content since the handwriting was very difficult to read, to a chemist.
Expecting that the Bach Mai Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Hanoi, would not be so crowded in the weekend, Mr. Vu from Ba Dinh district went to the hospital last Saturday. But he still had to wait for a long time to be examined within one minute.
“I often suffer from headache so I visited the Neurology Ward. The doctor I saw only asked several questions and told me to perform an encephalogram. The doctor did not try to learn how headache I have, from when, etc. I asked him about my problem but he did not answer. He said that without the encephalogram, he did not know what my problem was,” Vu recalled.
Vu wondered how it was in the past when doctors did not have modern machines. Though he was worried and dissatisfied with the doctor’s answer but Vu had to obey his instruction because dozens of patients were waiting for their turns.
Careful medical examination - uneasy!
A doctor at the Central Pediatrics Hospital said frankly: “It is very difficult to give detailed explanation to patients because I have to examine at least 60-70 children a day. Sometimes the number of patients is 100-110 per day.”
The doctor calculated that each doctor works eight hours a day (480 minutes). If he works with 60-70 patients a day, each patient will see the doctor for 6-7 minutes (if nothing happens). The time will be 3-4 minutes for a patient if the number rises to 100-110 patients/day.
“This period of time is not enough for clinical examination, let alone giving detailed explanation,” he said.
Patients’ interests like being clinically examined, explained, consulted, comforted and encouraged are abandoned because if doctors do all of these tasks, they need at least 30 minutes for each patient. With 480 minutes a day, a doctor will be able to examine only 16 patients, equivalent to one eighth of the real need.
“With several minutes for a patient, patients still have to wait a long time. 30 minutes for a patient is impossible in this situation,” the doctor said.
This is the situation at all big public hospitals in Hanoi and HCM City. At these hospitals, doctors have to work very tensely from 6.30am until 4.30pm, with at least 60 patients a day.
Another reason is doctors’ income is not enough to cover daily life so many of them are keen on their extra job at private consulting rooms.
N.Anh
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