Well it has been a really long time since i last went to the polyclinic. The last i can remember vaguely was when i was really young,maybe around 10yrs old. I had to go to tampines polyclinic for an x-ray of my chest. Then yesterday,i went to hougang polyclinic as i wasn't feeling too well. When i arrived,the first thing that greeted me at the entrace was this box with a lady inside. It kinda resembled a small guardhouse. Anyway,i approached the lady and i asked her what i had to do to see a doctor. She told me to give her my IC which i produced and she then proceeded to scan the barcode. After that,i was issued a queue ticket and she informed me to move over to this big room over to the right with the word "REGISTRATION" written on top. Apparently,what i had just gone through was merely a check in and now,i had to wait for my turn before i could be registered. I was constantly hesitating in my mind if i should just continue the whole procedure of seeing a doctor at the polyclinic or should i just throw my queue ticket away and go to a private clinic instead. Several minutes passed and there was a point in time when i had already crushed my queue ticket and was about to throw it away. Then i saw that it was just 3 people away from my turn and so i decided to wait. That turned out to be a very big mistake. After registering,i was informed to proceed up to the 2nd floor and wait outside room 20 for my consultation turn. I was taken aback then as i had originally thought that all the consultation was done on the first floor and a peak at the crowd size earlier which wasn't too big made me decide to stay on at the polyclinic. At this point of time i was thinking "shit,u mean there is a level 2 for consultation?" So i went upstairs and true enough,i saw lots of rooms and lots more people waiting around. I glanced at the crowd outside room 20...hmm,it numbered around 10-15..not too bad. So i took a seat as well and waited patiently for my turn. Then an hour passed and there seemed to be not much of a progress and at this point of time,i caught sight of an information board which displayed "your queue numbers may not be called in order...approximate waiting time for walk-in patients is 2hrs 5minutes". I was like "what the hell?!" It was too late for me to realise that my butt had to be glued to the seat for yet another hour. So i continued to wait as usual. There were several times when after a patient has left the room,for another 5 minutes nobody entered. Then i heard 2 aunties next to me commenting that it has been so long and nobody seemed to have gone in to see the doctor. I thought to myself that the doctor inside must be slacking and taking his own sweet time. Afterall,he isn't paid according to the number of patients he sees but rather how long he works for. So nevermind the fact that he cannot clear all his patients...Other doctors will just help him with it. In contrast,the doctor in room 19 was very fast and efficient. The moment a patient left the room,yet another would be called. Finally,after 2hrs of waiting,my number was called. I had described to the doctor what my symptoms were but he did not bother to probe deeper but instead just wrote down all i had to say. Then i told him that i needed an MC for the day and if possible the next day and his reply was" our policy is to give one day MC,if you are still unwell tomorrow then come back again for another day of MC" . I couldn't take it anymore..i was not going to come back the next day and wait for another 2hrs just to get an MC so i just had to be contented with the MC for one day. The doctor then informed me to proceed to the pharmacy located downstairs for my medication. I thought it would be as simple as going in,taking my medication and getting out of there but i was wrong. When i entered the pharmacy,a crowd of people greeted me. They were not there to hand me my medicine. Instead,they were all there to collect their medication and it was yet another queue ticket system. This time round,i was not sure about how to obtain a queue ticket for myself so i approached this small counter and made enquiries. The lady told me that she handled other cases and that i should go over there to get a number by pointing to her right. So i wnet over and after looking around for awhile,i finally caught sight of this counter with a sign above that read "queue number". There was yet another information board in the pharmacy and this round it displayed that the waiting time was approximately 45minutes". After about 30minutes i finally got my medicine and after making my payment of $11.40,i left the polyclinic. I did a little comparison after that. A trip to a private clinic would cost me about $26 but the time would be much shorter. As compared to the 2hrs 30min that i spent at the polyclinic,visiting a private doctor would only take me about 30minutes or maybe less. So i worked it out,it was just as good as me saving 2hrs of my pay but at the extent of waiting for 2 miserable hours. Even a hospitals A & E would have been faster. So i concluded that my experience at the polyclinic was a horrible one and never am i ever going back there again just for consultation. Yes it may be cheaper but considering the fact that most of the patients there are the elderly,it is not worth it. They are already so weak,old and sick yet asking them to wait for so long would just be adding on to their sufferings. Perhaps something has to be done about the whole system. What do you think?
